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THE 

UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

THE MISSION TO RUSSIA 

POLITICAL ADDRESSES 



BY 

ELIHU ROOT 

COLLECTED AND EDITED BT 

ROBERT BACON 

AND 

JAMES BROWN SCOTT 




I'Q:D'IIjcq 



CAMBRroOE 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 

LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD 
OxFOBD Univbbsitt Pbkss 

1918 






COPTHIGHT, 1918 
HABVABO UNIVER8ITT PKE8S 



PEB II 1918 



©CI.A492221 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Introductory Note vii 

THE UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 1 

The Enslavement of the Belgians 3 

An Address at a mass meeting in New York, December 15, 
1916. 

America's Present Needs 11 

An Address at the Congress of Constructive Patriotism, held 
under the auspices of the National Security League, Washing- 
ton, January 25, 1917. 

America on Trial 27 

An Address before the Union League Club, New York, March 
20, 1917. 

The United States and the World Crisis 33 

An Address as chairman of a patriotic mass meeting, Madison 
Square Garden, New York, March 22, 1917. 

The Duty of the Republican Party in the War . . 39 
A Speech before the New York Republican Club, April 9, 1917. 

Germany, Russia, and the United States 45 

An Address before the Union League Club, New York, August 
15, 1917. 

A Federated Union of the American Bar 57 

An Address at the special conference of delegates from the 
American Bar Association, and delegates from state and local 
bar associations, Saratoga Springs, New York, September 3, 
1917. 

The American Bar and the War 63 

Resolutions of the American Bar Association, Saratoga 
Springs, New York, September 4, 1917. 

The War and Discussion 65 

An Address at a war mass meeting in the Coliseum, Chicago, 
September 14, 1917. 

Japan and the United States 81 

An Address at a luncheon in honor of the Imperial Japanese 
Mission, New York, October 1, 1917. 






iv CONTENTS 

THE MISSION TO RUSSIA 87 

Introductory Note 89 

Letter to Charles R. Flint, March 24, 1917. 
Letter to Augustus Thomas, April 17, 1917. 

Address to the Council of Ministers 98 

Petrograd, June 15, 1917. 
Reply of the Minister of Foreign Affairs 101 

Address before the Russian-American Chamber of 

Commerce 105 

Petrograd, June 21, 1917. 

Address before the Social Associated Committees of 

Moscow, June 22, 1917 109 

Address before the Moscow Duma, June 22, 1917. . . Ill 

Address before the War Industries Committee at 

Moscow, June 23, 1917 117 

Address before the Zemstvo Union at Moscow, June 

23, 1917 123 

Address at the Moscow People's Bank, June 23, 1917 125 

Address at the Meeting of the Bourse of Moscow, 

June 23, 1917 127 

Address AT A Luncheon GIVEN BY General Brusilopp . . 130 
General Staff Headquarters, " Stafka," June 27, 1917. 

Address at a Luncheon given by the Minister of 

Foreign Affairs 132 

Petrograd, July 4, 1917. 

Address at a Luncheon of the American Club . . . 136 
Petrograd, July 6, 1917. 

Address at a Meeting of the Committee of Liquidation 

OF the Affairs of Poland 142 

Petrograd, July 7, 1917. 

Address before a Large Body of Russian Soldiers . 145 
Perm, July 13, 1917. 

Address before a Gathering of Soldiers and Citizens . 147 
Nazuvaeskaya, July 14, 1917. 

Address at a Reception by the City of Seattle, August 

4, 1917 149 



CONTENTS V 

Address at a Reception by the City of New York, 

August 15, 1917 154 

Faith in Russia 161 

An Address at a reception of the Chamber of Commerce of the 
State of New York, New York, August 15, 1917. 

Sympathy with Russia . 169 

An Address at the banquet of the American Bar Association, 
Saratoga Springs, New York, September 7, 1917. 

POLITICAL ADDRESSES 183 

The Campaign of 1904 185 

An Address at Buffalo, New York, October 22, 1904. 

The Demagogue in Politics 203 

An Address ui the campaign of 1906, Utica, New York, 
November 1, 1906. 

The Campaign of 1908 227 

An Address at the Republican State Convention, Saratoga 
Springs, New York, September 14, 1908. 

The New York State Campaign of 1910 259 

An Address at Manhattan Casino, New York, October 28, 
1910. 

The Achievement.s of Republican Administrations . . 277 
An Address at the Republican National Convention, Chicago, 
June 18, 1912. 

The Renomination of President Taft 297 

An Address as chairman of the Republican National Con- 
vention of 1912, notifying Mr. Taft of his nomination, Wash- 
ington, August 1,1912. 

The Republican Party in Opposition 301 

An Address at the Republican State Convention, Saratoga 
Springs, New York, August 18, 1914. 

The Campaign of 1916 323 

An Address at a public meeting held under the direction of the 
Republican Club, New York, October 5, 1916. 

Index 351 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

The collected addresses and state papers of Elihu Root, of 
which this is one of several volumes, cover the period of his 
service as Secretary of War, as Secretary of State, and as 
Senator of the United States, during which time, to use his 
own expression, his only client was his country. 

The many formal and occasional addresses and speeches, 
which will be found to be of a remarkably wide range, are 
followed by his state papers, such as the instructions to 
the American delegates to the Second Hague Peace Confer- 
ence and other diplomatic notes and documents, prepared 
by him as Secretary of State in the performance of his duties 
as an executive officer of the United States. Although the 
official documents have been kept separate from the other 
papers, this plan has been slightly modffied in the volume 
devoted to the military and colonial policy of the United 
States, which includes those portions of his official reports as 
Secretary of War throwing light upon his public addresses and 
his general military policy. 

The addresses and speeches selected for publication are 
not arranged chronologically, but are classified in such a way 
that each volume contains addresses and speeches relating 
to a general subject and a common purpose. The addresses 
as president of the American Society of International Law 
show his treatment of international questions from the 
theoretical standpoint, and in the light of his experience as 
Secretary of War and as Secretary of State, imrestrained and 
uncontrolled by the limitations of official position, whereas 
his addresses on foreign affairs, delivered while Secretary of 
State or as United States Senator, discuss these questions 
under the reserve of official responsibility. 



viii INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

Mr. Root's addresses on government, citizenship, and 
legal procedure are a masterly exposition of the principles 
of the Constitution and of the government established by- 
it; of the duty of the citizen to understand the Constitu- 
tion and to conform his conduct to its requirements; and 
of the right of the people to reform or to amend the Con- 
stitution in order to make representative government more 
effective and responsive to their present and future needs. 
The addresses on law and its administration state how legal 
procedure should be modified and simplified in the interest 
of justice rather than in the supposed interest of the legal 
profession. 

The addresses delivered during the trip to South America 
and Mexico in 1906, and in the United States after his return, 
with their message of good will, proclaim a new doctrine — 
the Root doctrine — of kindly consideration and of honorable 
obligation, and make clear the destiny common to the 
peoples of the Western World. 

The addresses and the reports on military and colonial 
policy made by Mr. Root as Secretary of War explain the 
reorganization of the army after the Spanish-American War, 
the creation of the General Staff, and the establishment of the 
Army War College. They trace the origin of and give the 
reason for the policy of this country in Cuba, the Philippines, 
and Porto Rico, devised and inaugurated by him. It is not 
generally known that the so-called Piatt Amendment, 
defining our relations to Cuba, was drafted by Mr. Root, and 
that the Organic Act of the Philippines was likewise the work 
of Mr. Root as Secretary of War. 

The argument before The Hague Tribunal in the North 
Atlantic Fisheries Case is a rare if not the only instance of a 
statesman appearing as chief counsel in an international 
arbitration, which, as Secretary of State, he had prepared 
and submitted. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE ix 

The miscellaneous addresses, including educational, his- 
torical, and commemorative addresses, the political speeches 
in days of peace, and the stirring and prophetic utterances 
in anticipation of and during our war with Germany, deliv- 
ered at home and on special mission in Russia, should make 
known to future generations the literary, artistic, and emo- 
tional side of this broad-minded and far-seeing statesman of 
our time. 

The publication of these collected addresses and state 
papers will, it is believed, enable the American people better 
to understand the generation in which Mr. Root has been a 
commanding figure, and better to appreciate during his life- 
time the services which he has rendered to his country. 

Robert Bacon. 
James Brown Scott. 

Septebibeb 16, 1917. 



THE UNITED STATES AND 
THE WAR 



THE ENSLAVEMENT OF THE BELGIANS 

ADDRESS AT A MASS MEETING IN NEW YORK CITY 
DECEMBER 13, 1916 

I AM glad to join my voice tonight with my fellows in this 
free land in condemnation and protest against this new 
outrage that is visited upon poor and bleeding Belgium. 

I could not remain silent. I should not respect myself if I 
remained silent, and I hope, I trust, I pray, that my country 
will not remain silent. 

Explain it as you may, excuse it as you may, disguise it as 
you may, the people of Belgium by the tens and hundreds of 
thousands are being carried away into slavery, — a thing 
that has not been done by any nation that claimed to be 
civilized in modern history. 

Poor Belgium, peaceful, industrious. God-fearing, law- 
abiding Belgium, she had no quarrel with any one; she 
sought no nation's territory; she coveted no neighbor's 
goods; she threatened no one's security, but she stood in the 
way of a mightier nation's purpose, — and she was stricken 
to the earth! Her firm, her stern and noble resolve to keep 
the faith was her only crime, and she has been punished as if 
her people were the vilest on earth. Her towns have been 
burned, her noble and stately monuments have been leveled 
to the earth; her women and children and old men have been 
murdered; her country has been brought under the sway of 
a foreign invader, and she has been bled white by vast 
exactions of money and of produce. Every effort to revive 
her industries has been denied, and now, because she has 
suffered thus, her men are to be carried away to forced labor 
as slaves. 



4 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

If the civilized world of the twentieth century is willing to 
stand silent and see these things done, in cumulative pro- 
gression, in violation of the laws of humanity and of nations, 
then the civilization of the twentieth century is worse than 
the savagery of Roman times. 

It seems that there is no place for the independence of 
small, weak states, for security in self-government by peace- 
able and unarmed peoples, or for individual freedom, or for 
private right, in that scheme of things under which " liberty 
for national evolution " is to justify all uses of power. 

But what we have to do is not merely to gratify our own 
feelings, by expressing them regarding this treatment of the 
Belgians. What we have to do is not merely to protest in the 
name of humanity, — it is to assert a right, it is to call upon 
the world to assert a right, a right under the law of nations 
for the protection of humanity and of civilization. This is our 
concern. This deportation of the Belgians to involuntary 
servitude is a violation of our law, of the law we helped to 
make, of the law which in common with all civilized nations 
we have built up generation after generation, and it has been 
embodied in definite and certain and solemn instruments of 
agreement, as to what humanity demands, signed by Bel- 
gium, signed by Germany, and binding today. I see that 
General von Bissing justifies the deportation of Belgian 
workmen and refers to the Hague Convention as to the basis 
for his action, quoting the provision that it is the duty of a 
belligerent power, in possession of conquered territory, to 
preserve order. The deportation, he says, was to preserve 
order in Belgium. Let me read the whole of the provision to 
which he refers: 

The authority of the legitimate power, having actually passed into the 
hands of the occupant, the latter shall take all steps in his power to rees- 
tablish and insure as far as possible public order and safety, while respect- 
ing, unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country. 



THE ENSLAVEMENT OF THE BELGIANS 5 

The most solemn of the laws of Belgium, protecting the 
rights of her people, were violated in contravention of 
that very provision by the man who appeals to it for his 
justijfication. 

What I read was from Article 43 of the 1899 convention 
of the First Hague Conference. The convention proceeds: 

Family honors and rights, individual lives, and private property, as well 
as religious convictions, and liberty, must be respected. 

The convention further proceeds: 

Until a more complete code of the laws of war is issued, the high con- 
tracting parties have the right to declare that in cases not included in the 
regulations adopted by them, populations and belligerents remain under 
the protection and empire of the principles of international law as they 
result from the usages established between civilized nations, the laws of 
humanity, and the requirements of public conscience. 

That convention was signed and ratified by every Power 
that is now engaged in the European war, as well as by our- 
selves. There was a subsequent convention that was signed 
by nearly all, which contained a provision that as to those 
that did not sign, the convention from which I read continued 
in force. The subsequent convention contained precisely 
identical provisions, so that Germany is bound in conscience 
and in law by the existing treaty between her and us, between 
her and Belgium, declaring what the principles of humanity 
require in the treatment of occupied territory. Those 
principles of humanity have been violated in accordance with 
the very statement of them upon which she and we have 
agreed. 

Now, I say this law is our law; it is our protection. The 
rights of man, peace and humanity, cannot be preserved 
upon impulse alone. Law governing men in the treatment 
of the weak and defenseless is necessary; and so for years, 
for centuries, the nations have been building up a code of 
law, international law, and that law is the protection — the 



6 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

enforcement of that law, respect for that law, obedience to 
that law, are the protection of our peaceable people, of all 
weak and small nations, of all those that do not wish to be 
armed to the teeth every moment for their own protection. 

We have a right to have it observed, and it is our duty to 
our children and to our country that we shall not remain 
silent in the face of open, flagrant, contemptuous disregard 
and violation of it. 

How can it be preserved ? Not merely by armies and 
navies. No. There is but one power on earth that can pre- 
serve the law for the protection of the poor, the weak and the 
humble; there is but one power on earth that can preserve 
the law for the maintenance of civilization and humanity, and 
that is the power, the mighty power, of the public opinion of 
mankind ! 

Without it, your leagues to enforce peace, your societies for 
a world's court, your peace conventions, your peace endow- 
ments, are all powerless, because no force moves in this world 
unless it ultimately has public opinion behind it. 

The thing that men fear more than they do the sheriff or 
the policeman or the state's prison is the condemnation of the 
community in which they live. 

The thing that among nations is the most potent force is 
the universal condemnation of mankind. And even during 
this terrible struggle we have seen the nations appealing from 
day to day, appealing by speech and by pen and by press for 
favorable judgment from mankind, the public opinion of the 
world. That opinion establishes standards of conduct. In 
Roman times, the standard of conduct permitted the carry- 
ing off of slaves to the mines; permitted the impaling of 
prisoners; permitted the sacking of towns. At the time of the 
Thirty Years' War, outrages almost as bad as those which 
have been perpetrated in Belgium were in accord with the 
practice and acquiescence of the world; but we thought that 



THE ENSLAVEMENT OF THE BELGIANS 7 

we had been building up new standards of conduct, that the 
world had grown more compassionate, and more kindly, and 
it had. The public opinion of the world was establishing, had 
established, a more humane and Christian standard of con- 
duct, both in peace and in war. That standard is now 
beaten down, it is destroyed, it is set at naught. And if we 
remain silent, if the great neutral peoples of the world remain 
silent, the standard is gone forever. 

And, mark this, the new standard, or rather, the return to 
the old standard of barbarism will not stop with the poor 
people of Belgium. It will be here ! Not perhaps for you and 
me, but for our children it will be here. 

How can we maintain the standard of civilization ? Not 
by silence regarding international wrong. If the world of well 
meaning and kindly and good people remain silent when 
hideous wrong is done, what difference is there to the wrong- 
doer between right and wrong ? In order that the public 
opinion of the world should be worth anything, it must 
condemn wrong. 

And that is what we are called upon to do now. I have 
thought it should be done before, but now there can be no 
doubt. I say that the mightiest power that man knows, is 
ready to be awakened and brought to bear for the prevention 
of such crimes in the future, provided we and others like us 
are true to our duty and speak out in condemnation of horrid 
crimes. America cannot choose at will. We have made 
professions, we have assumed an attitude, we have taken 
upon ourselves responsibility, we have declared ourselves the 
champions of freedom. Ah! Remember across the half- 
century, the words of Lincoln: " Four score and seven years 
ago our Fathers brought forth upon this Continent a new 
nation conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition 
that all men are created equal." They came here across the 
stormy seas in their little boats and braved the rigors of 



8 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

winter and the perils of savage foes that they might be free. 
Some of us remember how they gave their lives that the 
blacks might be free. It was the spirit of freedom that took 
the pioneers across the mountains and the plains and the 
rivers, and gave this vast continent to the reign of law and 
justice and peace. We have cherished ideals, we have had 
dreams, we have had ideals of a world made better and 
happier and nobler because America was a free democracy. 
We cannot remain silent now while these poor Belgians, 
without fault, are carried into slavery, without abjuring our 
past, and being false to our country. 

Land where my fathers died. 
Land of the Pilgrims' pride. 
From every mountain side. 
Let Freedom ring! 

Om- fathers' God, to Thee, 

Author of Liberty, 

To Thee we sing. 

Long may our land be bright. 

With Freedom's holy light. 

One cannot be an American, with the history of America, 
without responsibility, and that responsibility confronts the 
people of our country today to protect the spirit of American 
freedom. We have grown rich beyond the dreams of avarice. 
So prosperous, so many millions of automobiles, such palaces, 
such comforts, such luxury! Intellect has been trained, edu- 
cation spread broadcast over the land, peace preserved ! Ah ! 
Are we so sunk in comfort and luxury and self-satisfaction, 
that we have lost the old spirit of American freedom.? 

If we have not, we shall not dare remain silent over this 
latest wrong to Belgium. 

Let me read the effective words of that great-hearted and 
noble prelate, whose message, appealing to all that is best in 
humanity throughout the world, fearless of the mighty power 



THE ENSLAVEMENT OF THE BELGIANS 9 

that seeks to constrain him, will make the name of Cardinal 
Mercier great in history. Let me read from his pathetic 
appeal : 

We, the shepherds of these sheep who are torn from us by brutal force, 
full of anguish at the thought of the moral and religious isolation in which 
they are about to languish, impotent witnesses of the grief and terror in the 
numerous homes shattered or threatened, appeal to aU souls, believers or 
unbelievers, in allied countries, in neutral countries, and even in enemy 
countries, who have a respect for human dignity. May Divine Providence 
deign to inspire all who have any authority, all who are masters of speech 
and pen, to rally round our humble Belgian flag for the abolition of 
European slavery. 

Thank Heaven our President has assumed the leadership of 
the free opinion of the American democracy, and has spoken 
for it to Germany. All honor to him for it, and it is for us to 
say, as I for my part say, that we will stand by him, support 
him, approve him in maintaining the application of the free 
principles of America in insisting upon respect and obedience 
to the law which protects all weak and peaceable nations, 
and in protesting, with all the power of the hundred millions 
of America against the outrage upon humanity which has 
been done. 

We may not be, in the words of Cardinal Mercier, " mas- 
ters of speech and pen ", but we are masters of our souls, and 
we are part of the great self-governing people of America, 
and we can speak, and we can speak so clear and high that 
the world will hear it, and that all right-minded and com- 
passionate men and women will follow it and will join with 
us until the voice of the public opinion of the world will 
satisfy the most hard-hearted tyrant of them all that wrongs 
such as these are punished by the universal condemnation 
of mankind. 



AMERICA'S PRESENT NEEDS 

ADDRESS AT THE CONGRESS OF CONSTRUCTIVE PATRIOTISM 

HELD UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY 

LEAGUE. WASHINGTON, D. C. JANUARY 2,5, 1917 

I FIND that I am set down upon the program to speak 
upon America's present needs. I should not have dignified 
the few remarks that I have to make by any such stupendous 
title. I will make one observation, however, upon the sub- 
ject. It is that America's present need is a re-awakening of 
the spirit of a free self-governing democracy. And unless we 
are to wait until some great and terrible misfortune brings 
that awakening, each one of us, whose eyes are open to the 
condition and the demands of the times, must do his utmost 
to render his service and awaken his fellows. 

Now I wish I could say something — I would like to say 
something, not so much to lead or to convince you, whose 
eyes are already open, and who have come here because they 
are open, but something that will enable you, when you go 
home, to stir your fellow-countrymen, men and women, out 
of the lethargy into which they have fallen, a lethargy in 
which they assume that liberty and justice come as the air, 
without effort and need no service and no sacrifice for their 
perpetuation, a lethargy in which the more material things 
of life fill the needs and the wants, and to have a fat and 
increasing income and swell the millions of automobiles in the 
country, seems to be the mission of the American Republic. 
We have reached this condition of indifference and sluggish 
patriotism through decadence. As life has grown easier sac- 
rifice has grown harder. As we have grown rich in material 
things we have grown poor in spirit. 

11 



12 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

The original theory of our American government was the 
theory of universal service. Let me read you how the fathers 
of the Republic conceived that American independence and 
American freedom were to be preserved. I read from the 
Militia Act of May 8, 1792 — and you will perceive here 
that the Act is based upon the principle of universal com- 
pulsory preparation for public defense. The quaint old 
phrases of the Act may serve to impress upon your minds the 
changes of condition to which the principle is to be applied, 
while they may serve to enforce the memory of the principle. 
These are its provisions : 

Be it enacted by the Senate and Hotise of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled. That each and every free able- 
bodied white male citizen of the respective states, resident therein, who is 
or shall be of the age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five 
years . . . shall severally and respectively be enrolled in the militia by the 
captain, or commanding officer of the company, within whose bounds such 
citizen shall reside, and that within twelve months after the passing of this 
act. And it shall at all times hereafter be the duty of every such captain or 
commanding officer of a company to enrol every such citizen, as aforesaid, 
and also those who shall, from time to time, arrive at the age of eighteen 
years, or being of the age of eighteen years and under the age of forty-five 
years . . . shall come to reside within his bounds; and shall without delay 
notify such citizen of the said enrolment, by a proper non-commissioned 
officer of the company, by whom such notice may be proved. That every 
citizen so enrolled and notified, shall, within six months thereafter, provide 
himself with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt, two 
spare flints, and a knapsack, a pouch with a box therein to contain not less 
than twenty-four cartridges, suited to the bore of his musket or firelock, 
each cartridge to contain a proper quantity of powder and ball : or with a 
good rifle, knapsack, shot-pouch and powder-horn, twenty baUs suited to 
the bore of his rifle, and a quarter of a pound of powder; and shall appear, 
so armed, accoutred and provided, when called out to exercise, or into 
service, except, that when called out on company days to exercise only, he 
may appear without a knapsack. That the commissioned officers shall 
severally be armed with a sword or hanger and espontoon, and that from 
and after five years from the passing of this act, all muskets for arming 
the militia as herein required, shall be of bores sufficient for balls of the 
eighteenth part of a p>ound. And every citizen so enrolled, and providing 
himself with the arms, ammunition and accoutrements required as afore- 



AMERICA'S PRESENT NEEDS 13 

said, shall hold the same exempted from all suits, distresses, executions or 
sales, for debt or for the payment of taxes. . . . 

And be it further enacted. That within one year after the passing of this 
act, the militia of the respective states shall be arranged into divisions, 
brigades, regiments, battaUons, and companies, as the legislature of each 
state shall direct. . . . 

And be it further enacted. That there shall be an adjutant-general 
appointed in each state, whose duty it shall be to distribute all orders from 
the commander-in-chief of the state to the several corps; to attend all 
public reviews when the commander-in-chief of the state shall review the 
militia, or any part thereof; to obey all orders from him relative to carry- 
ing into execution and perfecting the system of military discipline estab- 
hshed by this act; to furnish blank forms of diflferent returns that may be 
required, and to explain the principles on which they should be made; to 
receive from the several officers of the diflPerent corps throughout the state, 
returns of the militia under their command, reporting the actual situation 
of their arms, accoutrements, and ammunition, their deUnquencies, and 
every other thing which relates to the general advancement of good order 
and discipline: all which the several officers of the divisions, brigades, 
regiments, and battaUons, are hereby required to make in the usual 
manner, so that the said adjutant-general may be duly furnished there- 
with: from all which returns he shall make proper abstracts, and lay the 
same annually before the commander-in-chief of the state. 

And be it further enacted. That the rules of discipline, approved and 
established by Congress in their resolution of the twenty-ninth of March, 
one thousand seven hundred and seventy-nine, shall be the rules of disci- 
pline to be observed by the militia throughout the United States, except 
such deviations from the said rules as may be rendered necessary by the 
requisitions of this act, or by some other unavoidable circumstances. It 
shall be the duty of the commanding officer at every muster, whether by 
battalion, regiment, or single company, to cause the miUtia to be exercised 
and trained agreeably to the said rules of discipUne.^ 

Now, what we are talking about in the meetings that have 
led up to this congress is a return to the original basic prin- 
ciple upon which this government was founded. There were 
rapid changes in conditions after this old, early Act. We 
gradually became relieved of the pressure of contiguous pos- 
sible enemies. With the purchase of Louisiana in 1803 the 
France of Napoleon disappeared from our border. With 

» U. S. statutes at Large, Vol. I, pp. 271-273. 



14 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

the acquisition of Florida in 1819, Spain withdrew from the 
continental limits of the present United States, and we no 
longer looked at Spanish soldiers across an imaginary border 
line. With the settlement of the Northeastern boundary 
controversy, in the Webster-Ashburton treaty of 1842, and 
with the Oregon boundary settlement in 1846, all cause of 
controversy with Great Britain upon our northern frontier 
disappeared. With the gradual pressing out of the settlers, 
occupation of Indian lands, and pressing back of the Indians, 
the danger of the Indian wars to the great settled states upon 
the Atlantic seaboard became far distant, and that great 
race question which agitated the men of the early days 
disappeared. We grew in numbers vastly and became so 
numerous that for any of the ordinary wars as they occurred 
in the nineteenth century, it seemed unnecessary that all the 
people of all the states should hold themselves prepared in 
accordance with the principles of this Act of 1792. Enough 
could be raised at any time to constitute an army of the size 
which was customary for the wars of that period. The spirit 
of adventure would lead young men enough to come to the 
front to engage in ordinary small wars, like, for instance, 
the Mexican War. And, finally, we came to the point where all 
this duty was completely changed, and the old militia service 
disappeared. About fourteen years ago a new experiment 
was tried. During this period of the gradual occultation of 
militia service the states had found that they needed some 
organized force for what was practically police duty, and 
from that need the National Guard arose. It was not that 
the states expected to engage in war with anybody, but 
because they must have an organized force; and about four- 
teen years ago the effort was made to utilize that organized 
force as a means of furnishing instruction to young Americans 
which would give them, in case they were called to volunteer 
for military service, the A B C of that service. In all our 



AMERICA'S PRESENT NEEDS 15 

wars we have suffered dreadfully from the fact that outside 
of the small regular army our volunteers had to be officered 
by men taken out of the workshop, the law office, the store, 
the farm; good men, but wholly, wholly untrained in military 
life and military duty; and no one can measure the loss of life 
which occurred in our Civil War because the young men who 
were sent on to the battlefields were led by officers wholly 
ignorant of their duties. 

The attempt then was made to treat the National Guard 
as an organized militia, to require its organization, its disci- 
pline, its armament, to conform to that of the regular army, 
give it instructors from the regular army, have it exercise in 
maneuvers and in camps with the regular army and con- 
tribute out of the national treasury towards its support and 
instruction, and that process has been going on for the last 
fourteen years. 

It now appears, however, I think with great certainty, that 
that process cannot produce more than a comparatively 
small number of men who are trained so that they have 
even the elements of military service. The National Guard 
has not increased very much during the whole period that has 
elapsed since the so-called Dick Act that made the arrange- 
ments for this joint instruction and joint exercise. 

So we find ourselves in this situation, that we have not yet 
secured any real substitute for the old universal service that 
is adequate to any very great military operation. But, in 
the meantime, the science of war has changed, and the rela- 
tions of armies and navies to the other peoples of the earth 
have changed so that we have an entirely new and different 
problem. In the old days nations used to send out armies, 
composed of but a very small part of the population, and 
those armies used to look for each other and fight each other, 
and, when they got through, there would be a peace made, 
which would result in some little changes, sometimes of 



16 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

consequence and sometimes of very little consequence, but 
the great mass of the people were not very much affected. 
The great mass of the people took but little part in it. 

But, now, war has become a conflict of entire nations 
against each other and we see today the whole people of 
England and the whole people of France and the whole 
people of Germany and of Austria, engaged in actual parti- 
cipation in the conflict. Now, with that kind of war, our 
little provision of a small regular army and a small National 
Guard is entirely incompetent to deal. We have already 
discovered that we cannot get any considerable increase 
through volunteering. There are not enough with all the 
interest in preparation for defense, to fill up the ranks of our 
regular army or to fill up the ranks of our National Guard. 
The reason is that the spirit of adventure is not adequate to 
furnish the soldiers. 

That same thing has proven true before. In 1812 we had 
to come to a draft. We tried to fight that war with volun- 
teers, volunteers in the regulars and volunteers in the militia, 
and we were unable to do it and we came to a draft and we 
made a terrible mess of it. In the Civil War we had to come 
to a draft. W^e tried to fight it with volunteers. The South 
appreciated the diflSculty in 1862 and started on a draft then. 
We waited until 1863, when we took recourse to conscription. 
Whenever the real stresses come, since we have abandoned 
the old universal system of this Act of 1792, the volunteer 
system has proved to be insuflBcient to answer the purpose. 
And now, a thousand times more, will it be incompetent when 
whole nations engage in war. 

War is changing in another respect. It has become vastly 
more scientific and the instruments of warfare have gone out 
of sight from the old hanger and spontoon of the Act of 1792. 
High explosives and machine guns, and breech-loading can- 
nons, and great field pieces that are sufficient to batter down 



AMERICA'S PRESENT NEEDS 17 

the mightiest fortifications, and submarines, and airships, and 
deadly gases, and spurting flames, and scores of other devices 
of science, have created a situation in which this volunteer 
million which is going to rise up when the President calls for 
the defense of America, stand no more chance against a dis- 
ciplined and trained army than the poor Mexicans did against 
Cortez, when he went through Mexico; or than the Ameri- 
can Indians with their bows and arrows stood against the 
regulars that drove them step by step from their ancient 
possessions. We would be today, if engaged in war, with 
our million patriots, in the position of the helpless savage 
fighting against the trained forces of civilization. 

It is not necessary to come even to this time for that, 
for here we should remember, when we are talking about 
the defense of country, how the British troops captured 
Washington and burned the Capitol and White House, 
marching from the Chesapeake here against an American 
army many times their number. Why ? These men, whom 
Madison drove out to see and in front of whose rout he drove 
rapidly back, were the sons of the men who fought at Bunker 
Hill and Saratoga and Yorktown, and they were the fathers 
of the men who fought at Gettysburg and Shiloh. They were 
as brave, as manly, as their fathers or their sons, but they 
fled before a force of men of the same race, far, far inferior in 
number. Why ? Because they did not know how to fight. 
They were as helpless as a sheep before a wolf. They did not 
know how. A little training beforehand would have taught 
them how. 

Now there is one other thing of vast importance and that 
is, that not only must men learn how, but they must be sup- 
plied. Armies must have food and shoes and clothes, and 
rifles to take the place of those that are broken and lost, and 
ammunition to take the place of that which is fired away, 
and cannons, and all the vast range of scientific appliances 



18 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

with which they may hold their own in battle. They must be 
transported. The high explosives require the use of many, 
many ingredients, not common. All of this vast supply, this 
supply upon which one-half the world is engaged today while 
the other half is using it in war, this vast supply must be 
provided from raw materials, and, in order that it may be 
made, people must know how to make it and must be trained 
in making it. And so there must be industrial training, indus- 
trial organization, industrial preparation, as well as the pro- 
vision of men. And beyond all that, when war comes, people 
have got to live. The industrial and financial processes of 
the country have got to go on, and if they are to go on not- 
withstanding the vastly disturbing forces of war, which break 
up all the common usual relations and occupations, people 
have got to be trained in industry. They have got to have 
the spirit of industry. They have got to have the spirit 
which will lead them to work although they are no longer 
making profits. They have got to have the spirit which will 
lead them to exercise their industry to do what they can, each 
in his way and in her way, to continue the life of the country, 
because they wish to serve their country. That means, not 
merely the organization of an army, but it means the organ- 
ization of a nation. No army and no nation can be effectively 
organized unless the spirit is within it which gives it motive 
power. 

Well, now, why all this ? WThy need we disturb ourselves ? 
I think that is the great trouble. I think that the great 
obstacle you men and women of this conference have to meet 
in the country is the fact that a great mass of the people of 
the country do not believe a word of it, do not believe there 
is any necessity of our talking about it, do not believe the 
trouble is ever going to come. To be sure, we have had wars 
all along, one in a little over every twenty years during our 
entire history. It is nineteen years now since the last, and 



AMERICANS PRESENT NEEDS 19 

we are due to have one pretty soon. But they do not believe 
that anything is going to happen. Now that is the trouble 
with preparation. If the people of the United States thought 
that there was any real danger of somebody's attacking us 
they would wake up soon enough and get ready. But they 
do not. So they turn the cows out to pasture and are no 
more disturbed about things than the cows. Well, let us 
look at the condition of affairs in the world. We did think 
that things were getting better. We had high hopes that the 
forces that make for peace, the public opinion of civilized 
man, and the values to civilized man of uninterrupted com- 
merce were continually making war less probable. But we 
have had a rude awakening. 

The present war which is raging in Europe was begun upon 
an avowal of principles of national action that no reasonable 
and thoughtful neutral ought to ignore. The central prin- 
ciple was that a state exigency, state interest, is superior to 
those rules of morality which control individuals. Now that 
was not an expedient, an excuse, seized upon to justify the 
beginning of the war; it is fundamental. The theory of the 
modern republic is that right begins with the individual. It 
was stated in the Declaration of Independence, that instru- 
ment which it was the fashion to sneer at a few years ago, 
but which states the fundamental principle upon which alone 
a free republic can live. It was that individual men have 
unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness, and that governments are instituted to 
secure those rights. The ancient theory, the theory alike 
of monarchies and of the ancient republics upon which 
they went down to their ruin, was that the state in the 
beginning was the foundation of right, and that individuals 
derive their rights from the state, and therefore, the exigencies 
of the state are superior to all individual rights. It was upon 
the continuance and assertion of that principle that this war 



20 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

in Europe was begun. And upon that principle it was 
declared that there was no obligation upon a nation to keep 
the faith of a treaty if it did not suit its interests f It was 
declared that there was no obligation upon a nation to 
observe the rules of that law of nations upon which all civilized 
states have agreed, if it did not suit its interest. Now mark, 
I am not discussing the right or wrong, I am stating the prin- 
ciple of action which was followed and which was asserted 
to be right. Upon that principle little Servia received an ulti- 
matum that demanded the surrender of her independence; 
and upon her failure to comply to the uttermost, she was 
overwhelmed. Upon that principle little Belgium that had 
no quarrel with anybody was served with a demand that she 
surrender her independent rights as a neutral and violate her 
solemn agreements to preserve her neutrality; and upon 
her refusal to surrender her rights and violate her faith, she 
was overwhelmed. And that principle is still maintained and 
asserted to be right. I repeat that I am not referring to this 
for the purpose of discussing it, I am referring to it because it 
bears directly upon our business here today. It does not 
matter much what you and I think about these things; it 
does not matter that I think they were immoral and criminal, 
as I do; it does not matter that I think that if that principle 
of national conduct is to be maintained and approved in this 
world, then liberty and civilization must die. What does 
matter is that approximately one-half the entire military 
power of this world supports that proposition. And I say to 
you, and I wish I could say it to every American, if that 
principle of national conduct be approved in the struggle 
that is pending, be approved by the free people of America, 
be approved by the conscience of the civilized world, then our 
American freedom will surely die and die while we live. 

The German note proposing a peace conference used a 
phrase which aptly describes the concrete application of the 



AMERICA'S PRESENT NEEDS 21 

principle about which I am talking. It said, ** We were 
forced to take the sword for justice and for liberty of national 
evolution." Liberty of national evolution! It was national 
evolution that overran S^rvia. It was national evolution 
that crushed Belgium. And national evolution has not con- 
fined itself to the pathway to the Channel or to the pathway 
to the Bosporus; it has extended over Asia and Africa, 
all over the world, except America, North and South, eager 
and grasping and resolute, gathering in under its flag, under 
domination, under national control, the territory of the 
earth. 

All nations have been at fault during this last half-century. 
Many crimes have been committed; no nations that I know 
have been guiltless — none. Neither England, nor France, 
nor Russia, nor Germany, nor Austria, nor the United States. 
For we still have to answer for Mexico. But the world is 
partitioned — Asia, Africa, Australasia, the islands of the 
sea, all taken up — except America. And we stand here 
with the Monroe Doctrine, we stand here with the Monroe 
Doctrine against the push and sweep of that mighty world 
tendency of national evolution and its progress under the 
principle that neither faith of treaties nor obligation of law 
nor rule of morality should stand in the way of a state that 
finds its interest to take what it wants for its national interest. 
How long will the Monroe Doctrine be worth the paper it was 
written on in 1823 if that condition is to go on ? That doc- 
trine is that the safety of the United States forbids any 
foreign military power to obtain a foothold upon this conti- 
nent from which it may readily make war upon the United 
States — that is the Monroe Doctrine — it is a declaration 
of what, in the opinion of the United States, is necessary for 
the safety of the United States. Now that doctrine is not 
international law. It has been maintained by three things. 
In the first place, the men of Monroe's time never thought of 



22 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

such a thing as not being ready to fight for their rights. They 
were Belgians, those people. The second has been that the 
balance of power in Europe has been so even, so close, and 
everybody has been so doubtful about what the other fel- 
lows were going to do, that nobody found it worth while to 
take on a row with the United States. And third, Eng- 
land's fleet. 

Now I ask what that Monroe Doctrine will be worth if 
we are not ready to protect it ? Suppose the result of this 
war is such that these foreign influences that have helped pre- 
serve the Monroe Doctrine disappear, and we are not ready 
to defend it ? Worthless! What will it mean if a foreign 
naval power, a real naval power, a real military power obtains 
a naval base in the Caribbean, or in those islands of the 
Pacific off Panama ? Our interests in the Panama Canal 
will be as worthless to us as the Bosporus is to Russia today. 
And instead of having what we have spent four hundred 
millions to accomplish, the means of transferring our navy 
from ocean to ocean, our navy will be shut up again on one 
side or the other of the continent. And then we will have to 
live as poor, peaceable France has lived for the last forty 
years, with a sentinel always on the lookout for an approach- 
ing foe. Then the fancied security and sweet, comfortable 
ease of our people will be replaced by alarms and rumors of 
war and attack upon occasion. For the Monroe Doctrine 
was based upon sound wisdom, and the abandonment of it 
or the destruction of it will be the end of our security. 

It seems to me that we have reached a point now where we 
can say that a prudent man, a man competent to be a trustee 
of property, will see that it is necessary for us to prepare to 
defend our rights. For why should not this principle of 
national aggression be applied to us ? Why should it not be 
applied to South and Central America and the West Indies ? 
Here we all are, rich, undefended, supine — fair game for 



AMERICA'S PRESENT NEEDS 23 

anybody who wants national evolution. Can anybody tell 
why it should not ? Interest and principle and habit all will 
conspire to a treatment of America like the treatment of 
China. And there is only one way possible for us to defend 
or be ready to defend our rights, and that is by going back to 
the old principle of universal preparation for service. We 
have found, beyond the possibility of question, that volun- 
teering, however ready the people may be, will not answer the 
purpose, because nobody volunteers until war, and when 
the war comes it is too late for him to learn to do his duty. 
Nobody is volunteering now, nobody volunteers for the 
National Guard or the regular army, and nobody will until 
the war. It is a matter of demonstration that you cannot get 
together a volunteer force in time of peace so as to prepare 
them to render their service in time of war. 

Now, going back to the matters which should lead a 
reasonable person to consider that there is a possibility of our 
being attacked, I want to call your attention to the way in 
which war comes. It does not come ordinarily by some 
country starting out a great fleet and a million men to go and 
invade another. It comes by a process of gradual aggression. 
What is going to happen to us if we do not get ready to 
defend our rights will be that first there will be one little 
aggression upon our rights — we will submit; there will be 
another little aggression, going a little farther, upon our 
rights, and we will submit; there will be another, and 
another, and another, and finally the patience of this great 
democracy will be worn out and they will clamor for war, and 
they will rush into war, unprepared for war. That is what is 
going to happen if we do not get ready. You cannot con- 
sider what men are going to do as if they were angels. Men 
are men, and greed and injustice and covetousness, and a 
desire to overrun the rights of others, stalk through the earth 
today as they did two thousand years ago. He who does not 



24 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

defend his liberty is foolish and simple and unworthy of 
liberty. 

Another thing: the President has recently made a speech 
in the Senate, which we have all been reading, and I wish you 
to observe that the only way he sees out of the war that is 
devastating Europe is by preparation for war. There is 
much noble idealism in that speech of the President. With 
its purpose I fully sympathize. The kind of peace he 
describes is the peace that I long for. But the way he sees 
to preserve that peace is by preparation for war. Now, if 
some of our friends among the corn-fields and the cotton- 
fields and the mines, and the citrous fruit orchards will sit up 
and read this clause of the President's speech, telling how we 
may prevent further wars, they may have reason to wonder 
whether they have not forgotten something. Here it is: 
" Mere agreement may not make peace secure. It will be 
absolutely necessary that a force be created as a guarantor 
of the permanency of the settlement so much greater than 
the force of any nation now engaged, or any alliance hitherto 
formed or projected, that no nation, no probable combina- 
tions of nations, could face or withstand it. If the peace 
presently to be made is to endure it must be a peace made 
secure by the organized major force of mankind." 

Now, I hope that paragraph means what I hope it does. I 
do not understand it as intended to commit the United States 
to enter into a convention or treaty with the other civilized 
countries of the world which will bind the United States to go 
to war on the continent of Europe or of Asia or in any other 
part of the world without the people of the United States 
having an opportunity at the time to say whether they will go 
to war or not. There would be serious diflBculties, I think 
insurmountable obstacles, to the making of any such agree- 
ment. One is, that agreement or no agreement, when the 
time comes the people of the United States will not go into 



AMERICA'S PRESENT NEEDS 25 

any war, and nobody can get them into any war, unless they 
then are in favor of fighting for something. And nothing can 
be so bad as to make a treaty and then break it. What I 
understand by it is, that a convention shall be made by which 
all the civilized nations shall agree with all their power to 
stand behind the maintenance of the peace thus agreed upon, 
and if that peace be infringed upon then each nation shall 
determine what it is its duty to do under the obligation of 
that agreement towards the maintenance of that peace. But 
observe that that is worthless, meaningless, unless the nations 
that enter into it keep the power behind it. It will be worth- 
less agreement on our part if we have not a ship or a soldier 
that we can contribute to the war, if war there ought to be, 
for the maintenance of that peace. And it absolutely requires 
that we shall build up a force, a potential power of arms, 
commensurate with our size, our numbers, our wealth, our 
dignity, our part among the nations of the earth. 

There is just one other sentence of this speech about which 
I wish to say a word, and that is the declaration that the 
peace must be a peace without victory. Now, I sympathize 
with that. But the peace that the President describes 
involves the absolute destruction and abandonment of the 
principles upon which this war was begun. It does not say 
" Servia ", it does not say " Belgium ", but there the chosen 
head of the American people has declared the principles of the 
American democracy in unmistakable terms; has declared for 
the independence and equal rights of all small and weak 
nations; has declared for a Monroe Doctrine of the whole 
world precluding all nations from interfering with the inde- 
pendent control of its own affairs by every small nation, from 
taking away the territory of other nations, from attempting 
to exercise the coercion of superior power over other nations, 
for disarmament, for the reduction of these mighty armies 
and navies. And every word of that declaration, which I 



26 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

believe truly represents the conscience and judgment of the 
American people, denounces the sacrifice of Belgium and of 
Servia and the principles upon which they were made. 

Now one side of that is the declaration that peace must 
be without victory. Suppose that such a peace cannot be made 
without victory, which is the superior ? Which is to obtain ? 
Of course, the great end and the choice of means becomes 
infinitely subordinate. If that peace, the peace that enthrones 
in the world principles of individual liberty and national 
right, and national subjection to the laws of morals can be 
obtained without any further military pressure, then, thank 
God for it. But if it cannot be obtained without such 
further military pressure as to end in victory, then let us 
pray for the victory. 

It is one of the best qualities of human nature that makes 
us as we enjoy the blessings of freedom of intellect, freedom 
of religion, freedom of action, look back with gratitude to 
the men who sacrificed themselves in the long struggle of the 
ages for these things. Whether they be martyrs at the stake, 
or Cameronians in the Highlands of Scotland, or Huguenots 
in the Gvennes, or lawyers pleading for justice against 
popular clamor and disapproval, or brave men fighting in the 
defense of their country's liberty, we are all grateful to them 
because our blessings came from their noble sacrifice. 

My friends, so sure am I that liberty and security in this 
land of ours depend upon the destruction and abandonment 
of the hated principle of national aggrandizement and 
immorality, and the enthronement of the principles of 
national responsibility and morality, that for all the countless 
generations to come after us in our dear land, I am grateful 
with all my heart to those men who are fighting in the 
trenches in France and Belgium and Russia and Italy and 
the Balkans today for the liberty and peace of my children's 
children. 



AMERICA ON TRIAL 

ADDRESS BEFORE THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB, NEW YORK 
MARCH 20, 1917 

I HAVE a deep conviction that we none of us, not one of us 
appreciates how serious the conditions are which confront 
us — not one of us really understands how fraught with good 
or ill, w^ith perpetuity for our institutions, or with the ruin of 
our country, is the course of the American people within the 
next few months. 

It is difficult, in the midst of a great crisis, to feel how great 
it is, but no one need suppose that this mighty war which has 
shaken the world and which has involved all the continents 
but ours, will leave the world as it was on the first of August, 
1914. 

We are passing into a new world, with the new duties and 
new dangers, and we must confront our future, not with com- 
fortable assurance that everything is to be as it has been, but 
with a clear and alert appreciation of what we are to meet. 

The situation is a very extraordinary one. Germany is 
making war upon us. There may not be technically a war 
because it may be that it takes two to produce that; but 
Germany is making war upon us, and we are all waiting to see 
whether we are to take it " lying down." It is either war or 
it is submission to oppression. 

Gradually a feeling is making its appearance, a restiveness 
of the people of the country. Tens of thousands of young 
men are seeking opportunity to prepare themselves for mili- 
tary service — to drill, to get the A B C of the service in 
order that they may do their duty by the country when the 



28 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

actual fighting comes. Commercial bodies, manufacturing 
bodies, professional bodies are meeting and discussing, all 
over the country, what they can do. There are multitudes 
of American citizens who are asking " WTiat can I do for my 
country in this grave crisis ? " 

They can do nothing except through the executive depart- 
ments at Washington. Nothing. No ship can sail; no regi- 
ment can march; no gun can be fired; no insult or injury can 
be repelled except through the executive departments at 
Washington. 

What is there we can do ? Only this : We can perform the 
duty of a free, self-governing people, by speaking in clear and 
certain tones, so that the spirit and the purpose and the will 
of a free people may be heard in Washington and our Govern- 
ment may know that the American people \Yill be behind it, 
supporting it, approving it, sustaining it in maintaining the 
honor and the integrity and the independence and the free- 
dom of our republic. 

My diagnosis of the situation is that the President wants 
to hear from the people. He has said so many times. He 
wants to hear whether the people of the United States want 
him to go on and act. Let us answer to his want and tell him 
that the American people do want the Government not to 
discuss, and plan, and talk about what is going to be done, 
but to act. Let us say to him, and if we say it, others will say 
it also, that we wish all the powers he has now to be exer- 
cised; and let us say to Congress — and if we say it others 
will say it also — that we wish them to give to the Executive 
all the additional powers that may be found needed for the 
exercise of the entire force of this great nation for the support 
of its independence and its honor. 

It is not merely a question as to whether ships shall be 
sunk, it is not merely a question as to whether our merchant 



AMERICA ON TRIAL 29 

vessels shall navigate the seas or lie up in their ports; it is 
far broader and more far-reaching than that. Where are we 
to be when this war ends ? What is going to happen to us 
then ? Understand that no considerations of treaty faith or 
of international law, or of peaceful assurance, play any more 
a part in determining what one nation is to do to another. 
The solemn treaty for the protection of Belgium was turned 
into a scrap of paper, and the same principle which was 
applied to Belgium has now been applied to us. When our 
ships were sunk the supreme right of a powerful nation's 
interest was declared to be superior to all obligations of treaty 
and of law, and of peaceful assurance, and of humanity, and 
that is what we have to meet, and we must face it. 

Consider this : the population of the world has doubled in 
the last eighty years; the pressure of population is surging 
over the boundaries of national territory; if the same rate of 
population growth continues during the next century, 
instead of seventeen hundred millions of inhabitants in the 
world there will be four thousand millions. The rapidly 
increasing population of Germany, thrusting out over her 
boundaries, sought colonies all over the world. Colonies 
were not enough, and the war that was forced upon Europe 
has been characterized and explained by the formal German 
manifesto in which peace was offered. The German Govern- 
ment said, " We were forced to take the sword for justice and 
the liberty of national evolution ", which means evolution 
into the territory of others. The great east, the Orient, the 
hundreds of millions of the Orient, are multiplying with 
amazing rapidity, and they also seek liberty of national 
evolution. Africa has been partitioned, Asia has been par- 
titioned, Europe is occupied, Australasia is occupied; what 
remains but America, that vast region, from Tierra del Fuego 
to the Caribbean, which has been protected heretofore by the 



30 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

Monroe Doctrine ? What remains for the pressure of surplus 
population, and the liberty of national evolution, but that 
thinly-peopled and undefended territory ? 

That is what we have got to face when this war is over. 
And where then is our Monroe Doctrine ? Wliat is it worth 
without force behind it ? And if the Monroe Doctrine fails, 
if that is ignored, with a German naval station in the Carib- 
bean and an Asiatic naval station in lower California, the 
Panama Canal is as worthless to us for strategic purposes as 
is the Dardanelles to Russia today. Then we will be face to 
face with the situation in which France has been for the last 
forty years, with strong, aggressive military powers on our 
borders. 

The letter of Herr Zimmerman to Mexico, proposing the 
alliance of Mexico and Japan for the dismemberment of this 
union, was not a dream. It was an uncautious exhibition of a 
purpose — a settled purpose which has been thought out and 
which is being worked out and which will continue to be 
worked out if possible until this country stands alone and 
defenseless against immediate and contiguous superior 
military power. 

Now I am not talking about the will of this man or that; 
I am talking about the great movements of population. I am 
talking about those mighty forces which have in all history 
changed the face of the civilized world and set up and torn 
down nations. That mighty stream of mankind will follow 
the line of least resistance, and unless we are able to defend our 
rights, unless it is clearly understood that we will defend 
our rights, it will flow over us. 

The serious thing for us today is that we are on trial. The 
question whether the American people are competent to 
defend their rights is being tried out now, and if we fail in the 
trial our rights will disappear. As Ambassador Gerard says 



AMERICA ON TRIAL 31 

truly, if we had a million men under arms, we would not be so 
near the edge of war. If it is understood that this hundred 
million of people are animated by a common spirit, that they 
have the courage and the devotion which founded this free 
republic, no one will seek to prevail against us; but if it is 
understood that we are a weak, flabby, divided, and indif- 
ferent people, who can be insulted and assaulted and abused 
with impunity, then the tide flows over us and we are gone. 
Our country is gone. Our Union is gone. Our liberty is gone. 

Make no mistake: Unless we demonstrate now that we 
have the courage and the power to defend ourselves against 
aggression, we will speedily reach the point where we cannot 
defend ourselves against aggression! We have been very 
unresponsive to a voice that should have called to us in the 
names of our fathers. We have stood dull and indifferent, 
while the peoples of Europe have been fighting against the 
negation of everything that makes America what it is. We 
have stood dull and unresponsive to England and France, 
and to Russia — now being revivified and glorified, thank 
God, while the spirit of democracy has been struggling to 
defend itself against the spirit of military despotism and the 
principles of absolute control by government over human life 
and human liberty. 

We have forgotten the mission of America for liberty and 
justice. We have rejoiced in our prosperity. We have 
passed on the other side while men have suffered and died for 
the principles that our fathers taught us; and now it has been 
brought home to us with a last appeal. I remember that 
Horace Mann, just before the Civil War said, " The time has 
come to learn whether our Union is a rope of sand or a band 
of steel." The time has come now, in the inexorable course of 
fate, for the American people to learn whether there still 
lives in this republic the true spirit of a free democracy, or 



32 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

whether we are merely a great aggregation of prosperous 
people, fit only to be a prey to the domination of an oppres- 
sor. Now, if our voice can be heard, if we can do something, 
anything, to make our Government feel that the free and 
loyal people of America want it to assert the principles of 
American liberty and freedom, and to assert them with the 
power of this great people, for God's sake, let us do it! 



THE UNITED STATES AND THE 
WORLD CRISIS 

ADDRESS AS CHAIRMAN OF A PATRIOTIC MASS MEETING 

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NEW YORK 

MARCH 22, 1917 

IN all this vast assemblage, there are no parties and no 
partisans. We are all Americans. We come to exercise 
the right and perform the duty of citizens of a great self- 
governing republic, to voice, so far as in us lies, the people's 
mind upon the fateful issues of this present time. 

We come not to find fault or to criticize. We come to turn 
our faces towards the Government of our choice, the Govern- 
ment, the President and the Congress, on whom weigh the 
terrible burdens of decision and action in the issue of peace 
or war, and in the service of that freedom which can be main- 
tained, it now seems, only by war. In this government by 
the people, it must be the people themselves who act through 
the President and the Congress. 

Autocrats with great standing armies can make war as 
they choose, because they have but to order and their regi- 
ments march; but in a democracy war cannot be made except 
as the people will that it shall be made. And we are here to 
bear the burden of freedom, in raising our voice as to what 
freedom demands in meeting the war that is now being waged 
against us. We do not underestimate the gravity of the 
situation in which our country finds itself. Our country has 
been ordered — ordered to leave the seas; ordered off the seas 
that are ours equally with all the other nations of the earth; 
ordered by the autocrat of Germany to leave those seas our 
fathers crossed in their frail barks in search of the freedom 
that they set up on this continent; ordered to leave those 

33 



34 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

seas that the commerce of America has whitened with its 
sails for more than a century; and our country has refused 
to obey the order. 

We have been attacked with arms for refusing; our ships 
have been sunk; our people have been murdered; our men, 
our women, our children have been sent to their death by shot 
and shell and torpedo sped from German men-of-war because 
we refused to obey the order of Germany. 

And what we are here to speak to our Government about 
is the question, — not a question with us, but the question 
whether we shall meet that attack by manly and brave 
defense, or by submission, — submission. It is no question 
now of peace; it is no question now of patience; it is a simple 
question whether or not we shall submit — crushed into 
submission — crushed into submission by the arms of the 
Germany which orders us off the seas. It is not a mere ques- 
tion of ships, it is not a mere question of leaving the seas, it 
is not a mere question of abandoning those rights of our 
independence; it is a far deeper and more serious question 
than that. 

All history teaches us that the rich and defenseless peoples, 
the peoples who are too luxurious, too fond of their comfort, 
their prosperity, their wealth, their ease, to make sacrifice 
for their liberty, surely fall a prey to the aggressor. So Rome 
fell at the hands of barbarians, not more barbarous, not more 
cruel, not more arrogant and overbearing than the military 
class that rules Germany today. So Persia fell, with all her 
magnificence, before the arms of Alexander. So poor, peace- 
ful China fell, three hundred years ago, before the invading 
Manchus; and but now, under the pressure of the great 
forces of freedom brought into the world, the poor Chinese 
are beginning to lay aside the shaven head and the pigtail 
that were the marks of their subjugation to the conquering 
race. So we will fall if our luxury, our wealth, our ease. 



UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD CRISIS 35 

our unwillingness for sacrifice, make us unable to defend our 
independence and our liberty! All history shows that to 
defend a nation's rights you must begin at the beginning. 
One submission leads to new aggression, and one submission 
makes a second submission easier; and so, step by step, 
before a people knows, unwilling to realize the gravity and 
importance of each successive infringement of its rights, 
before it knows, its rights are gone, and it is a dependent and 
subject people. 

We did think a few years ago that the reign of law had 
come into the world; we did think that the rules of law 
that all civilized nations had agreed to be bound by, were a 
protection to the peaceful, to the weak; we did think that the 
faith of treaties was a protection; but we have had a sad 
awakening. Neither the rules of law nor the faith of treaties 
nor the instincts of humanity, nor the teachings of civiliza- 
tion, nor the requirements of religion, stand in the way of 
those powers that are now seeking in the world, with fire and 
sword, what they call the liberty of national evolution, the 
liberty to send their increasing population out, and seize the 
territory and subjugate the inhabitants of other lands. No 
more the protection of treaty or of law guards the people of 
America round about. The doctrine that a state can do no 
wrong, the doctrine that a state is entitled to take with the 
strong arm what its interest requires, has been declared and 
is supported by one-half the military power of the world; 
and if the present war in Europe ends without a victory over 
the nations which are declaring and acting upon that hateful 
doctrine, there will be no peace nor safety for free democ- 
racies in this world, imless all free countries be turned into 
armed camps. Still more than that, whether Germany be 
conquered or not, if a peace be made in Europe; if a peace 
be made and America has no friends in the making of it to 
include — 



36 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

[Here occurred an interruption by some of the audience, 
followed by expulsion.] 

The first overt act by the agents of the delightful German 
plot to break up this meeting has made itself heard and is 
disposed of. There are some more of them here. But let me 
tell them that they must not push the patience of Americans 
too far. 

I say once more about the war in Europe : if peace be made 
there and no friend of America includes in its terms any- 
thing to protect these western continents, the whole force 
of " national evolution " into the territory of others will be 
directed towards the vast territories, the immense wealth, 
of undefended America. 

Africa is taken up, Asia is taken up; there is nothing left 
for the spoiler but the Americas, if they are not defended. 
Here we stand with our Monroe Doctrine that has so long 
protected us and the South and Central American nations. 
What will that be worth against the principles of national 
conduct that invaded Belgium, unless we are ready to defend 
it ? If we yield our rights in weak submission now, will we 
be ready to act when Germany establishes a naval base in 
the Caribbean, and some other military country establishes 
a base in southern California, both commanding the Panama 
Canal, and making that Canal absolutely worthless for our 
own protection ? 

If we yield in weak submission now, the Monroe Doctrine 
is not worth the paper it is printed on, from this time forward. 
And so the question is not about ships, not about saving the 
seas, but it is whether America has the spirit and the power 
to defend her rights, to defend her independence, her liberty, 
her peace, her safety, her wealth, her homes. 

The question is not merely whether we shall submit, but 
whether the world shall be made to understand that America, 
with its hundred million of people, with its vast wealth, with 



UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD CRISIS 37 

its great traditions, with all the independent spirit of the 
greatest free democracy, has the power and the courage to 
defend herself! 

I hate war, but I welcome the coming of the inevitable at 
the beginning. I do not want to defend my house by putting 
off an attack during the brief minutes that I can spend under 
the bed! I say that upon the issue of the war in Europe 
hangs the question whether America shall, at the close of 
that war, be turned into one armed camp, or whether America 
shall be a subject nation. There is no nation on earth — not 
England, nor France, nor Belgium, nor Italy, nor Russia, 
with a greater stake in the success of the Allies in this 
war against German militarism, than the United States. We 
are able to hold this peaceful meeting — with a few weak 
explosions — and why ? Because we are protected by the 
navies and armies of the Allies ! 

A Voice: That's a lie! 

[Followed by the ejection of the interruptor.] 

If we were not protected by those armies and navies across 
the Atlantic, German ships would be outside of our harbor, 
for Germany never hesitates to strike. The self-respect, the 
dignity and the honor of our country require that we shall not 
longer hide under the protection of others, but shall proceed 
to protect ourselves ! 

One thing more. Every American, every true American 
heart should respond with joy, amid its sorrow, to the feeling 
that if we enter this war to do our part towards bringing about 
the victory that is so important to us, we shall be fighting 
over again the battle of the American democracy, along with 
the democracy of England, the democracy of France, the 
democracy of Italy, and now, God be praised, the great 
democracy of Russia; fighting for the principle of free self- 
government against the principle of old-time autocracy and 
military power; and every American should be at heart. 



38 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

and with his voice and his effort, his sacrifice and his prayers, 
aiding in that great battle of the ages. 

Our fathers ht the torch : it was our fight for the freedom 
of self-governing democracies that unloosed the bonds upon 
the people of England; it was our success that gave courage 
and hope to the men of France, who cast down the Bourbons 
and set up the republic. No man has fought for liberty 
during this century and a half, in all this world, who has not 
been cheered and strengthened by the example and the spirit 
of our free America; and if that spirit is not dead, as I know 
it is not, that spirit is with the Allies who are fighting our 
battles ! 



THE DUTY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 
IN THE WAR 

SPEECH BEFORE THE NEW YORK REPUBLICAN CLUB 
APRIL 9, 1917 

The preceding pages contain several recent addresses by Mr. Root dealing with 
the momentous problems confronting the United States and growing out of the 
European war. Following the President's message to Congress on April 2, 1917, 
and the declaration of a state of war against the Imperial German Government on 
April 6, a meeting was held in the Republican Club of New York on April 9, 1917, 
at which the principal address was made by Mr. Root. It is an appeal to friends and 
associates to forget politics, to stand loyally behind the Administration, and to 
unite their forces to the end that the war into which the United States has entered in 
behalf of democracy, humanity, and international justice, may be waged by a imited 
country, with all its resources, to a successful conclusion. Unfortunately, Mr. Root 
had prepared no notes of his address and there was no regular reporter present; the 
editors are compelled to rely upon the incomplete newspaper accounts of what was 
undoubtedly one of the most effective of Mr. Root's public addresses. 

THE war upon which our country has now entered is not 
over the question of ships or whether Americans shall 
insist upon their right to travel the high seas. These are but 
illustrative and symbolical of the great issues. The struggle 
is between liberty and justice on one side and oppression and 
barbarism on the other. It has been growing more and more 
manifest during the past two and a half years that the conflict 
raging in Europe, Asia, and Africa, between the Central 
European Powers and the Allies, is a conflict for the control 
of the world. From all the confusing statements and mass of 
documents at the beginning of the war there has gradually 
emerged the ascertained certainty that Germany, under the 
leadership of the military caste of Prussia, has entered upon a 
great undertaking for which she has been preparing for more 
than a generation with but one object, the hegemony of the 
world. The Allies with whom we have now ranged ourselves 



40 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

are fighting to prevent being reduced to subjection by the 
military power of Germany. 

Our declaration of war now has saved the American people 
from irretrievable disaster immediately after the conclusion 
of the war in Europe. It has become startlingly evident that 
if Germany wins this war, the same principles under which she 
treated the covenant with Belgium as a scrap of paper, and 
laid waste and sacked and burned the towns, and murdered 
the people of that poor and peaceful country, and under which 
she has violated every rule of international law and the obli- 
gations of treaties, will be applied by her to the rest of the 
world. The issue of the war is the issue of submission to 
the same principle of conduct which took the lives of women 
and children in Belgium. 

Even though Germany may not be successful in this war, 
she will still remain the Germany of seventy millions of 
people. They will still be there. If, after the war, Germany 
is left with her power intact, if the terms of peace provide no 
terms for the western continent, then Germany will be free to 
seize her only opportunity to recoup the damages of the war. 
There will be but one avenue in which she can continue her 
career of expansion, and that will be through the broad, rich 
fields of the western continent. What then will become of 
the Monroe Doctrine ? If we shrink from the test now, what 
will we do if Germany establishes a base in the Caribbean at 
the very entrance to the Panama Canal ^ If we do nothing 
now, we will do nothing then. If we do not get ready now, 
we will not be ready then. If we are not stirred to action 
now, we will not be stirred to action then. If such a base be 
established on our border as a basis for new aggression, how 
long will it be before we find ourselves in the condition of a 
subject people, unready to defend our liberties ? Ordinary 
intelligence should make the country provide now against 
that certain result in the future. 



THE DUTY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 41 

The war, however, is more than a conflict between nations. 
It is a conflict between two hostile principles; the principle 
of democracy which rests upon individual freedom, and the 
principle of autocracy which rests upon military force. The 
two are as far apart as freedom and slavery. President 
Lincoln said the country could not endure half free and half 
slave. It is also true that the world cannot endure half free 
and half Prussian. Democracies cannot live in the same world 
with aggressive military autocracies. To remain alongside 
such a military power means that the democracy must sub- 
mit to the will of the autocracy, or the democracy must 
make itself always ready for defense against attack; but 
the conditions of modern war make it impossible for 
democracy to keep itself always prepared for defense against 
attack, and to continue its free democratic institutions; for 
the successful conduct of war involves extensive and essen- 
tial surrenders of individual liberty. If military autocracies 
are to continue, the world must either submit or must become 
a group of armed camps, inhabited by people who have sur- 
rendered their liberties to military authority. The President 
was right when he said that the world must be made safe for 
democracy. In order that it shall be safe, the domination of 
the Prussian caste must be prevented. We are to fight for 
that; we are to fight for our own liberties and the liberties of 
all mankind. We are to fight for the ideals of America, for the 
mission of America, for the enfranchisement of the world. 

With this solemn and stupendous duty resting upon the 
American people, with the acceptance of this burden we must 
be ready to take our part. What is our part; what are our 
duties ? We are Republicans. We have special duties as 
Republicans. Our party was defeated at the last election, 
and the opposing party is in possession of the Government. 
Our first duty is to control ourselves; to banish from our 
hearts every feeling of partisanship, of party prejudice, and 



42 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

fill them with patriotism and love of country, and the sole 
desire to do our duty to our country. Criticism and fault- 
finding and discontent have been incidents of all our wars. 
They are incident to our free and easy democracy. They will 
come again inevitably. As we love our country, we must now 
give to the Democratic administration our whole-hearted, 
earnest, sincere support. That is the only way we can prove 
not merely our love for our country as individuals, but 
demonstrate that the Republican Party loves its country 
more than it cares for place and power. When the inevitable 
shortcomings of democracy come — as come they must — 
then is the time for stout hearts to stand by their country, to 
say that no matter what mistakes are made we will support 
the Government of our country. 

We must sweep all partisanship away. The men in Wash- 
ington are our President, our Cabinet, and our Congress, no 
matter whose votes elected them. We will stand by the 
President now, as we stood by Lincoln when the faint- 
hearted and the scurrilous were crying that the war was a 
failure. We will demonstrate the real patriotism of the 
Republican Party in good repute and ill repute, in success, 
in failure, come what may, for the fate of our country is 
involved. Other countries change governments. England 
has now a coalition government. France has changed her 
government several times since the war began. And now, 
the great Russian democracy has come into its own and over- 
thrown the autocratic government which was already bar- 
gaining with Germany for the preservation of autocracy. 
Our government cannot be changed between elections. For 
four years democrats must control in Washington, and we 
must give them as whole-hearted, earnest, sincere support as 
if every man there were a Republican. We need no coalition 
government to make us loyal. We will make a coalition our- 



THE DUTY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 43 

selves with every Democrat in the country. The coalition of 
the United States will be of all its people to hold up the 
hands of the Government of the United States, no matter 
which party holds the reins. 

Only one thing we will say to the party in power, — let us 
have a real war. Let us lose no opportunity in public or in 
private to urge and insist upon a vigorous and real war. 
There must be no dillydallying or half measures nor any 
giving in to peace terms until democracy is triumphant. Let 
us so conduct this war that no nation will ever again think 
that it is a light or an easy thing to enter upon war with the 
United States. 

Speeding the completion of the naval program and the 
upbuilding of a great army are the principal tasks imme- 
diately ahead of the United States. Here there must be no 
jealousies between states, no quibbling over whether gover- 
nors shall retain the appointing power. It is our duty to 
make a national army, an army single in purpose and sym- 
pathy, responsible to one Commander-in-Chief of the 
American Army, and without any of the bickerings that have 
wrecked so many fair causes. There should be a system of 
universal military service. In that vigorous war which we 
advocate, one thing ought to be done at the earliest practi- 
cable day. An American army, great if possible, small if 
must be, should be put on the battle-line of France and 
Belgium, so that all the world will know that American 
democracy is really fighting for the principles of American 
freedom, side by side with England, France, Russia, and the 
other allied countries, in the world war for the freedom of 
the human race; and no one may doubt that we are with our 
friends, heart and soul, ready to offer our sacrifice in the 
great cause in which we have so much to gain and so much to 
lose. The honor and dignity of our country depend upon the 



44 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

part it now plays. We have got to show that the United 
States is a nation and not a mere aggregation of people. The 
United States must fight with all its resources of men and 
money, with all its inventive and business genius, with all its 
heart and soul. 

The war cannot be ended with anything else than the com- 
plete overthrow of autocracy. 



GERMANY, RUSSIA, AND THE 
UNITED STATES 

ADDRESS BEFORE THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB, NEW YORK 
AUGUST 15, 1917 

Following Mayor Mitchel's reception to the Russian Mission at the New York 
City Hall on August 15, 1917, and the luncheon of the Chamber of Commerce of the 
City of New York on the same day, the Mission was tendered a reception by the 
Union League Club in the evening. The members of the Mission were presented to 
the members of the club by the president, the Honorable Charles E. Hughes, who 
then introduced the head of the Mission in the following words: 

This is an occasion of unique interest. Our fellow-member, whom we have 
long honored and loved, returns to us from a service of vast importance, most 
admirably and nobly performed. He has received the oflBcial welcome of the 
city; he has been greeted by the most important commercial body of this 
metropolis; but we desire to add to these greetings, in which we are glad to have 
had a share, the more intimate welcome that comes from his old-time friends 
in this Union League Club. 

When it was announced that the President had selected Mr. Root to go as 
the head of this important mission to Russia, we were all extremely glad that 
the best thought of the nation was to find expression through this eminent 
statesman. I am sure, however, that the friends of Mr. Root had some little 
misgiving, because at that time we were fiUed with uncertainty and appre- 
hension. The age which his appearance belies was about to be put to a severe 
test. He might well have sought exemption from such an arduous task; but 
whatever was in the minds of his friends was not in his mind. To him there 
was but one thought, and that was, that any service within his power to render 
to the nation he would render, here or anywhere. That, gentlemen, according 
to place and opportimity and talent, is the very essence of patriotism, and the 
nation has no abler statesman and no finer patriot than Elihu Root. 

Now he has returned. Our misgivings, as is usual with most of our mis- 
givings, were without warrant. He has performed the most diflacult task that 
could be set to him to perform, that of adding luster to a name already so 
renowned. He retiu-ns to us from this service, the importance of which we all 
appreciate, with a message. We are glad to greet him as a friend, but we are 
even more keen to hear what he has to say with respect to conditions on the 
other side. The greatest event of this period of extraordinary events is the 
emergence of the people of Russia into the responsibilities and privileges and 
enormous difficulties of freedom. God forbid that any one in the United States 

45 



46 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

should look askance at Russia. Russia, our great sister nation, carries now in no 
small degree the hopes of humanity, and ever^' one whose heart is full of the 
intense desire that man shall move forward to happier and better days, that 
freedom shall be world-wide and that there shall be in the future such an 
organization in the world as will prevent the recurrence of war, looks today to 
Russia, full of sympathy, full of pride in what has already been accomplished 
under the most extreme difficulties, full of intense personal interest, with that 
feeling of brotherhood which must possess us if we are not only to fight for 
democracy, but to be worthy of democracy when won. 

Now we are here to listen to a message from one who has been most success- 
ful in interpreting the thought of America to the people of Russia in this crisis. 
He and those who were associated with him in this mission have, it seems to me, 
been very successful in conveying our thought to them, and it is important that 
they should now from this vantage-ground of personal observation, interpret 
Russia as they have seen Russia, as they have learned to know Russia, to us. 
We are living in a world where the future depends on our mutual understanding 
— not on formal programs, not on the formal engagements of nations, but upon 
an understanding of aims which we hold in common for human betterment. 

It is a peculiar privilege to listen to our distinguished fellow-member on his 
return from this great errand on behalf of the United States. It is my great 
pleasure to introduce Mr. Elihu Root. 

I WISH to explain to my associates of the Special Diplo- 
matic Mission that some of the nice things which our 
president has said tonight are a matter of habit. He says 
them to me because this is my home. The gray-headed old 
men you see about you and I have lived together in this 
club, have cultivated and stimulated each other's patriotism 
here in the atmosphere created by the founders of the club, 
for the last forty years, and the younger members have come 
into the fellowship of the club and have inherited the tradi- 
tion; and they say these nice things because I am theirs and 
they are mine, and we love each other, and we have confi- 
dence each in the other's love of country, and sincerity of 
purpose, and willingness to sacrifice and to labor for the 
common good of our beloved country. 

I am to say something about Russia, and I wish also to say 
something about America. I thought often while in Russia, 
as I watched the labors and judged the mental state and 
feelings of the men who were engaged in the hard task of 



GERMANY, RUSSIA, AND THE UNITED STATES 47 

building up the government in Russia, of those men of the 
days of '63 who gathered in the old club house in Union 
Square to render the same service to the American democ- 
racy then struggling against the impending danger of death 
to the Republic. 

I wish to say to you that I never have seen a more gallant 
fight with purer motives and nobler purpose than the few 
men who are controlling the government of Russia today 
have been making against overwhelming odds for the free- 
dom of their people and the safety of democracy in Russia 
and in the world. 

Everything was against them; the soldiers and the people, 
the peasants who make up eighty-five per cent of Russia, had 
lost a leader. They had not been in the habit of thinking 
upon political questions, they had been in the habit of obey- 
ing, and the word which they had obeyed was gone. The 
soldiers had lost the command to follow, they had lost their 
national head, they had lost their national flag. The laws 
which received their sanction from the Czar, when the Czar 
was gone, no longer seemed to have moral obligation. The 
police had disappeared. The people of Russia were practi- 
cally without government, for the Provisional Govern- 
ment had no power to execute a decree. Without police, 
without law, their own orderly habits, their own mutual 
consideration for the rights of others alone remained to pre- 
serve their respect for property and life and human rights. 
Throughout Russia, with no other safeguard, order reigned 
as perfect as reigns in the United States today, because the 
people of Russia have ingrained, inherent characteristics, 
qualities of character which are necessary for the mainte- 
nance of free self-government. 

Germany, making common cause with those extremists 
who would break down and destroy all industrial organi- 
zation, all national authority, Germany carried on in the 



48 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

early months of the revolution a great propaganda in a score 
of ways to pervert the minds of the Russian people. Her 
agents swarmed over the border, they spent money by the 
million in buying adherents to the German cause; they pur- 
chased newspapers and established newspapers; they dis- 
tributed literature; their troops, under order, swarmed out 
of the trenches with open arms to fraternize with the Russian 
troops. They said to them, " Why do you fight us ? This 
was the Czar's war, it was not your war. Why do you want 
to kill us who are your friends ? Why do you want to get 
killed ? Why not go home and share in the division of the 
land ? If you do not hurry you will get left, it will all be in 
other hands. WTiy go on with the Czar's war, which was not 
your war ? " And they produced an effect on the army of 
Russia that made them generally, along all the thousand- 
mile line, unwilling to fight. The Russians were tired of the 
war, as all the peoples of Europe are tired of the war. And 
when we reached Russia it seemed as if the game was over. 
Sagacious observers there said, " According to all the rules 
of the game, Russia is out of the war." 

A few men, thoughtful men, realized that the erection of a 
system of free self-government according to the life, the 
customs, the spirit of Russian life, could never be developed 
under the suzerainty of Germany. They realized that sub- 
jection to Germany meant the death of Russian liberty; and 
they set out to re-inspire in the Russian people a knowledge, 
a realization, a spirit of defense for their newly-won freedom; 
and under the splendid leadership of Kerensky, under the 
wise and sagacious control of Nekrasoff and Terestchenko 
and Tseratelli and a score of others, they gradually brought 
discipline back. Out of confusion and bewilderment they 
have brought a knowledge and a realization of duty, and 
Russia has found herself, and has begun again to fight for the 
preservation of her own freedom. 



GERMANY, RUSSIA, AND THE UNITED STATES 49 

Germany has appealed in Russia, as she has appealed in 
America and all over the world, to all the baser motives of 
mankind. She has appealed to cupidity, she has bought 
men in and out of office, right and left, by scores. She has 
expended millions of money in Russia, as she has here, to 
buy treason for her own benefit. She has appealed to pas- 
sion and prejudice, to local interest that quarrels with the 
public good, to personal selfishness and ambitions. Wher- 
ever in Russia, wherever in this world a baser motive was to 
be found, Germany has developed a feeling for it as swift 
and irresistible as any chemical combinations that we know 
of. Every base, every despicable, every damnable influence 
that tends to break down law and order and to frustrate 
noble purposes and great designs for good, she has employed. 
She has done it in Russia, as she has done it here, with dia- 
bolical ingenuity. But in one thing Germany has failed; 
she has been incapable of measuring, of understanding, the 
great moral forces that move mankind, the great moral force 
leading modern civilization to higher and better things. 

Germany could not understand that love of country and the 
passionate desire for Italia Irredenta would take Italy out of 
the Triple Alliance and range her against the German armies. 

She could not understand that England, which, set in the 
enjoyment of peace and wealth, had turned a deaf ear to the 
warning of good old Lord Roberts, that England would 
revolt at the shameful bargain that was proposed to Sir 
Edward Grey, to connive, to wink at the violations of trea- 
ties that protected Belgium and stand idly by while poor 
Belgium was overrun with indescribable cruelty and sav- 
agery. She could not understand that down from Puritan 
ancestry and the nobility of the Cavaliers of many genera- 
tions, there came a spirit of moral power in England that 
would array her against the damnable wrong that Germany 
did to Belgium. 



50 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

Germany could not understand that the British colonies 
had replaced the rule of force that once bound them to Eng- 
land by a bond of sentiment a thousand times stronger than 
all the red-coats that ever garrisoned the citadel of Quebec. 

Germany could not understand that the longings for free- 
dom and self-government of South Africa could transmute 
the fairness and justice of the final settlement of the relation 
between England and the Boers into a feeling of loyalty to 
England upon the part of the Boers. 

Germany could not understand that there was a line 
beyond which the free, rich, comfortable people of the 
United States of America, rejoicing in their prosperity and 
their comfort, would not pass — a line at which the ideals 
of their fathers and an ingrained sense of devotion to the 
liberty of mankind forbade the sordid considerations of 
prosperity and wealth longer to govern the free American 
people. 

Then, again, buying treason in Russia, playing upon sor- 
did motives and every degraded impulse to be found in 
Russia, Germany again has failed to understand the moral 
power of that great empire, and that great justice and liberty- 
loving people. Time was but a few months ago when a regi- 
ment of Germans could have marched over the border and 
gone where they would; but they misjudged the moral force 
of the Russian people, and they waited too long. They 
waited until the power of regeneration, so strong in the Rus- 
sian character, had had time to begin its work, and they are 
moving too late. I do not know what the fortunes of the 
battlefield may be, but I do think that the Russian people 
have again found themselves, and again begun one of those 
extraordinary recoveries which the indomitable spirit of 
Russia makes possible beyond the experience of any other 
race. 



GERMANY, RUSSIA, AND THE UNITED STATES 51 

Now we have sent a mission of congratulation and friend- 
ship and cooperation to Russia, and we are committed to 
help Russia. There are many things in which she can be 
helped; in money, for her financial condition is bad; in 
munitions, for her soldiers must have munitions with which 
to fight; in transportation, in locomotives and cars, for her 
rolling stock is almost worn out in these three years of war; 
in a dozen material ways, as well as in the courage and hope 
that come from comradeship and faith and confidence that 
we all need. I hope that all of you will stand by our Gov- 
ernment in rendering the fullest measure of help to Russia, 
which is fighting our battles with her own; poor Russia, 
desperately weary of the war, still gathering herself for 
another campaign, while we are entering the war fresh and 
unharmed. I hope you will all stand by the Government of 
our country in rendering the full measure of help to Russia, 
and I hope that you will aid the people of the United States 
to support the Government in rendering that help by a uni- 
versal sentiment of desire for comradeship and support on 
the part of the people of the United States. Material, sub- 
stantial, practical aid is needed that Russia shall go on with 
the war. That we must give if we are true to our assurances, 
and if we are true to our principles. 

I want to say a word — not too many words — about the 
situation in America. I feel that there are still some Ameri- 
cans who do not quite understand why we are fighting, why 
we are about to fight. If they did, they would stop these pro- 
German traitors who are selling out our country, who are 
endeavoring to make us unsuccessful in the war that we have 
undertaken, who are endeavoring to make our actions ineffi- 
cient, who are endeavoring by opposition and obstruction, 
in Congress and out of Congress, to make what America does 
in preparation for the war so ineffective, partial, and incom- 



52 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

petent, that when our young men go to the firing line in 
France and Flanders they will meet defeat. If our people all 
understood why it is that we are going into this war, they 
would rise up and crush these traitors down to earth. There 
are men walking about the streets of this city tonight that 
ought to be taken out at sunrise tomorrow and shot for trea- 
son. They are doing their work under false pretense; they 
are professing to be for the country and they are lying every 
day and in every word. They are covering themselves with 
the cloak of pretended Americanism; and if we are compe- 
tent and fit for our liberty, we will find them out and get at 
them. And every one of us can help, not by talking to each 
other about what we hear, but by carrying to the authorities 
charged with the pursuit and detection of traitors, all the 
information we can gather. 

And understand, and I hope they will understand, it is 
only a question of time. We are only a democracy, we have 
not the swift decision and competent action of a military 
autocracy, but we cannot be fooled or played with too long. 
There are some newspapers published in this city every day, 
the editors of v/hich deserve conviction and execution for 
treason. And sooner or later they will get it. The American 
people are not going to see their young men led to death 
through the machinations of these ill-concealed friends of the 
enemy of our country. 

Now, why is it that we are going into this fight ? Specifi- 
cally, the sinking of our ships and the murder of our citizens 
by the U-boats, in violation of the well-established and 
agreed-upon rules of the law of nations. That does not tell 
the whole story, because that action in violation of the law of 
nations, in violation of the rules of humanity and in violation 
of the well-established principles of our civilization, is but an 
illustration of what it is that Germany proposes to the world. 
It is but an illustration of what we are all to expect if Ger- 



GERMANY, RUSSIA, AND THE UNITED STATES 53 

many acquires domination over the world, as Rome domi- 
nated the world; and it is to prevent that domination which 
will be the death of liberty, the downfall of democracy, the 
restoration of tyranny, that America is entering this war; 
and it is to preserve not merely the freedom, the democracy 
of the world at large, but the freedom and the democracy of 
our own country, that we are entering the war. 

It is an old saying that to govern is to foresee, and the 
democracy that governs must be able to foresee. You can- 
not expect all the people who are working upon the farms 
and in the factories and in the stores and shops to be so 
familiar with international affairs as to look forward and 
forecast the future, but you can expect that in a competent, 
self-governing democracy there shall be many men who are 
suflSiciently familiar with the affairs of the world to form a 
just forecast of what their country is to expect in the near 
future, judging from what they see in the present; and that 
forecast leaves no doubt whatever that if Germany were to 
win in this war the liberty of America would be worth not a 
song. If Germany were to win in this war, it would mean the 
dismemberment of this Union and the subjection of this 
people! 

Do you remember what Bismarck said about the Monroe 
Doctrine ? He said it was a piece of colossal impudence. Do 
you remember what William, the present William, the great 
war lord, said at the time of the Venezuelan affair ? He 
said if he had had a larger navy he would have taken the 
United States by the scruff of the neck. Do you remember 
what Admiral Dietrich undertook to do in Manila Bay, when 
Dewey sent word to him, " If you want to have a fight, you 
can have it now " ? Did you otiserve what Germany was 
doing in Haiti just before this war was opened ? She was 
seeking a foothold in Haiti — for a naval base in the Carib- 
bean, commanding the Panama Canal, and robbing us for- 



54 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

ever of our security, and making it necessary that we should 
keep forever great navies and great armies for our protection 
against sudden and unexpected attack. 

What has Germany been doing all over the world but 
meddling with the affairs of every country, to extend her own 
dominion ? Africa, Asia, the islands of the South Seas, she 
has seized upon. About all the world is taken up except the 
vast and ill-populated and undefended stretches of incal- 
culable wealth in the New World — South America and 
North America. 

Now, add to the gloss that we have in specific facts upon 
the character and purpose of Germany, the avowed prin- 
ciples of Germany: no faith or treaties are binding on her; 
no law is to bind her when it is against the interests of 
Germany. National interest is above all obligations of law 
and faith. That is her supreme law. 

To seize what she desires is right in her eyes. To lie when 
it will benefit his country, is honorable to a German gentle- 
man. 'Not one of the principles that have illustrated the 
civilization of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is held 
in the slightest regard by the military autocracy that rules 
Germany. They have harked back to those dark and dread- 
ful days of the past when might was the only right, and all 
man need do was to seize what his strong right hand could 
hold; to those days when there was no liberty or justice for 
plain, common people; to those days when the principles of 
Rome governed the actions of men. Then turn your eyes to 
America, with Germany holding those principles, moved by 
such impulses, repudiating all laws and treaties upon which 
we rely for protection, with a lust for territory and a pride in 
conquest, and an overwhelming belief in the right of their 
race to dominate the world; and think what America would 
have had to meet if this war had closed with the success of 
Germany, with the fertile fields and the rich mines of South 



GERMANY, RUSSIA, AND THE UNITED STATES 55 

and North America lying undefended. As clear as the day- 
light on this morning is the lesson; as certain as the sunrise 
tomorrow was the inevitable fate of the United States if 
Germany were to win this war. We have entered the war to 
fight for liberty, for democracy, not in the abstract, but in 
order that our children may inherit a free land, and be sub- 
ject to no master, be subservient to no arrogant military 
caste. That is why we are fighting, and that calls for every 
ounce of weight we have in America; it calls for the stern- 
ness and severity of men who understand that we are fighting 
for life; it calls for a treatment of these recreant scoundrels 
who are trying to help the enemy of our liberty, treatment as 
severe and rigid as our strength makes it possible to extend. 

We are going to fight, that our old men and children shall 
not be murdered, and our women outraged, that our oppor- 
tunities in life shall not be cut off, and that our people who 
have lived with no political superior for more than a hundred 
years may not be reduced to a condition of vassals. And it 
is no easy thing; we have got to suffer and to endure. It is 
no business in which we should be concerned about trifles. 
We may not like this or that or the other thing that a public 
officer does. The main thing, the great thing is to do nothing 
that will retard or divert or hinder the exercise of the full 
power of the American people in this mighty conflict, and to 
do everything that we can to add to that power, and press 
forward to the accomplishment of the great and necessary 
object of winning the war. 

Now, thoughtful Russians feel that. The war is at their 
doors. Their young men have died, and mourning is through- 
out the land, and they are wearied of the war; but they feel 
that their liberty will be lost if they do not gather again for 
the conflict; and we soon or late must come to feel it, and the 
sooner we feel it, the sooner it will be over and the victory 
won. 



A FEDERATED UNION OF THE 
AMERICAN BAR 

ADDRESS AT THE SPECIAL CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES FROM 

THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION AND DELEGATES 

FROM STATE AND LOCAL BAR ASSOCL^TIONS 

SARATOGA SPRINGS, SEPTEMBER 3, 1917 

A special conference was held in connection with the annual meeting of the 
American Bar Association at Saratoga Springs, the second of its kind, the first 
having been held at Chicago, following an invitation extended by the American Bar 
Association, over the signature of its then president, Elihu Root. Mr. Julius Henry 
Cohen of New York named Mr. Root as presiding officer of the Saratoga conference, 
saying: " It is the great privilege of the Committee on Arrangements to present for 
your consideration as chairman of this conference the name of Elihu Root." 
Mr. Root was declared the unanimous choice of the conference as its presiding 
officer, and spoke as follows: 

I THANK you for your cordiality in selecting me to act 
as chairman of this meeting. 

The subject is one in which I have taken a great interest, 
because after acting as president, first of the local bar associa- 
tion of my own city, then as president of the bar association 
of my own state, and then as president of the American 
Bar Association, I have come to feel that there is a great loss 
of power, a great waste of opportunity, through the failure of 
these different associations to function with proper reference 
to each other. It seemed to me that the local associations 
lacked something of the strength and effectiveness that 
would come from a consciousness of a broader scope of 
activity in the profession than is possible to a local associa- 
tion shut up in itself, and that the national association was 
wholly unable to accomplish results in many most important 
directions because it lacked the personal touch with the bars 
of the different localities. It seemed to me that the diffi- 
culties that existed were not to be met by any scheme of 

^7 



58 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

combination, of reorganization — of a federal system, of an 
absorbing one of the other — that any such plan, and there 
were many of them, would result in the destruction of either 
the local associations or the national association; but that 
there could be a very great increase of power by establishing 
association and by cooperation, by establishing close and 
systematic relations between local and state associations and 
the national association, leaving each class of association free 
and sovereign in its own domain. 

That view — I speak of my understanding of it, not 
because I originated it, for it was the view which was enter- 
tained by many gentlemen of the bar and was expressed in 
conversation here and there in a desultory way — led to the 
call for a conference last year, which, after a quite full discus- 
sion, realized that it was only on the threshold of the subject, 
and so called for this further conference. What we were 
talking about last year was the betterment of our methods, 
our institutions; the improvement of conditions at the bar; 
the improvement of the morale, the prosperity and the effec- 
tiveness of the bar and the improvement of the administra- 
tion of justice. Some things were called for that the national 
association could do; some things were called for that the 
state and local associations could do, for the improvement of 
ordinary conditions — setting up a movement for progress 
towards better conditions all the time. We all realized that 
the bar had rather lagged behind in availing itself of the 
power of organization and association which almost all kinds 
of business had adopted, and in almost all the other relations 
of life, multiplying the power of man. 

Today there has been a change in conditions which pre- 
sents an infinitely more important and pressing necessity for 
the highest effectiveness of the bar, not merely for the better- 
ment of its conditions, not merely for the improvement of 
the administration of justice in the ordinary course of affairs. 



FEDERATED UNION OF THE BAR 59 

but for the preservation of the institutions upon which our 
law rests; for the preservation of the system of justice that 
we represent, and in behalf of which we speak from day to 
day, from the time we receive our first diploma until the 
time that we lay down all our human activities. 

There was much discussion about little things at the 
beginning of this great war; questions of dates and of 
negotiations between foreign offices, whether this one was 
really in favor of this or not, and whether that one ought to 
have done something or ought not to have done something 
which would have a bearing upon the preservation of peace 
and the prevention of war. Gradually, as time has gone on 
and facts have developed more clearly, it has become per- 
fectly plain that this war is not solely a conflict between 
specific ambitions, but that it is a conflict between two 
opposed and inevitably opposed systems of government, of 
policy, of politics, of human society. It has become quite 
evident that this war was brought on with a purpose to 
establish throughout the civilized world a military autocracy. 
It has become perfectly evident that more than a generation 
of careful, purposeful, and intense preparation had been made 
for this very thing and that the democracies of the world — 
loosely compact, rejoicing in peace and in prosperity, in 
political freedom, in individual liberty — were unprepared, 
were in great measure and in differing degrees unprepared, 
to meet the attack upon them. Slowly it became apparent 
to the democracies of the world that the principle upon 
which they live must be defended against the attack of the 
adverse principle, the domination of which means the spread 
of autocracy and the everlasting destruction of the system of 
individual liberty of which we are the high priests of the bar. 
So long as there exists a great and powerful military autoc- 
racy, which has as its purpose to secure domination by 
military force, so long republics, democracies, countries 



60 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

which preserve individual freedom and individual rights — 
countries which subordinate government to freedom — must 
be at the mercy of that autocracy; they must do its will and 
submit to its control, or they must enter upon a systematic 
preparation of military force for defense, to an extent which 
in itself must destroy democracy, must destroy individual 
liberty. Let me make that plain by an illustration. We are 
today in war; we have entered upon the present great war 
in order that we may before it is too late defend our future 
liberty and security against the domination of an overpower- 
ing and arrogant military autocracy; that we may defend 
our liberty and our future security, while there is yet a 
chance of defending it, because there are still other powers 
with which we can join to defend it. 

What is the effect of our entering upon the war ? The 
effect is that we have surrendered, and are obliged to sur- 
render, a great measure of that liberty which you and I have 
been asserting in court during all of our lives. Power over 
property, power over person, has to be vested in a military 
commander in order to carry on war successfully. You can- 
not have free democracy and successful war at the same 
moment. The inevitable conclusion is that if you have to 
live with a great powerful military autocracy as your neigh- 
bor you cannot maintain your democracy. And another 
inference is that if you are to maintain your democracy you 
must kill autocracy. 

As well go to sleep with a burglar sitting in your front hall 
as to talk about the peace and the security of a democracy 
with Germany still competent to pursue its career of domina- 
tion! Think of it for a moment. If we had not gone into 
this war and Germany had succeeded and had come out with 
her power unbroken and had applied to us, as she had very 
well the will to do, the same principles that she applied to 
Serbia and to Belgium, and we had undertaken to prepare to 



FEDERATED UNION OF THE BAR 61 

defend our rights as we are now preparing to defend them, 
and the armies and the navies of the Allies in Europe had not 
held down the German fleets and the German army, what 
would Germany have been doing to us now ? What would 
have happened to us during these five months of confusion 
and doubt and the learning of military organization in the 
infant class ? What would Germany have done to us during 
the past five months if she had not been held down in 
Europe ? Why, her heel would have been upon our neck. 
So our entrance into this war has been a grasping at the one 
chance for the preservation of our system of government, 
our independent bar, our independent courts, our rights of 
American manhood to assert the rights of the individual in 
all places and against all power. Our entrance into this war 
has been a grasping at the one chance there was to continue 
the free republic that our fathers have handed down to us, 
and to preserve everything that makes the life of a lawyer 
dignified and worth the living. 

Ajid our vigorous and successful prosecution of this war is 
the sole way in which we can make that chance a successful 
one. There is no room now for argument as to whether we 
should or whether we should not; we are in the war, and the 
stake for which we fight is hberty in independence and 
the justice of our American country, our American life, our 
American ideals. It is we of the bar who stand at the door 
through which oppression will enter. It is not so easy for the 
farmer to see that there will be a difference in his crops or in 
the sale of them; for the manufacturer to see that any one 
will stop wearing clothing or shoes or using machinery, but 
it is easy for us to see that with the domination of that 
military system which subordinates law, which makes the 
bar only a part of the administrative system of government 
and leaves the bench no independence — it is easy for the 
lawyer to see that everything he has contended for of indi- 



62 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

vidual liberty and the supremacy of law over executive 
power will be attacked and destroyed if we do not succeed in 
this war. Now, it is necessary that the bar of the United 
States shall be ahve to this fact, that it may constitute a 
great informing and enlightening power throughout our 
land so that the humblest workingman in the field or in the 
factory may be awakened to the necessity for the preserva- 
tion of our liberty, and our system of law and justice. The 
bar should exert every influence and every power that it 
possibly can over its clients, over its friends and associates 
throughout every community where its members live, 
giving the cry of alarm, and urging the support of the whole 
community for the men who represent the law and the 
enforcement of it, for liberty and for property. 

This change to warlike conditions does not supersede what 
we were talking about a year ago. It only illustrates the 
importance of it; it adds a thousand fold to the importance 
of it; it calls for an increase of power through association and 
organization that we were seeking for last year and makes it a 
hundred times as pressing in its demand, a hundred times as 
important in its result. 

And so let us go on with our effort to weld the bars of all the 
states and of all the towns, not into the American Bar Asso- 
ciation, not into any state association, but into a federal 
union, not on paper, but by growth and association and 
cooperated action — a federated union of all the bars in all 
the states and all the towns; a federated union of all the 
bars which, in time, will produce by the natural processes of 
growth the American bar, the greatest power for liberty and 
justice, for right and manhood, that this world has ever 
produced. 



THE AMERICAN BAR AND THE WAR 

BESOLUTIONS OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION 
, SEPTEMBER 4, 1917 

At the annual meeting of the American Bar Association, held at Saratoga Springs, 
New York, September 4-7, 1917, the first business transacted was the unanimous 
adoption by a rising vote of the following resolutions, presented by Mr. Root in 
behalf of the Executive Committee. In presenting the resolutions, Mr. Root said: 

1ASK leave to submit to the Association a special and 
preliminary report from the Executive Committee. Your 
committee feel that the essential character of the great con- 
flict upon which our country is now entering challenges the 
special attention and judgment of the bar above all other 
classes or groups of the community. It is plain to the 
thoughtful observer that at the bottom the world conflict is 
between two opposing principles of organization of civil 
society. It is between the principle of government by 
divine right with the subordination of individual liberty to 
the forces that maintain autocracy, and the principle of 
individual liberty, with the organization of government for 
the preservation of that liberty upon the basis of popular 
authority. The conflict is the result of forces mightier than 
the will of any nation which in the providence of God have 
brought this people to the point where once again they are 
required to fight, at the sacrifice of comfort and ease and 
property and life, for the institutions that they cherish, for 
the liberty they are determined to maintain, and for the 
justice which they hope to hand down to their children. 
And your committee feel that at the outset of these proceed- 
ings the representatives of the American bar should speak 
regarding their attitude toward this conflict with no uncer- 
tain sound — should speak as men who have all their lives 



64 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

been standing for justice and maintaining law and liberty. 
The committee have, therefore, instructed me to present the 
following resolutions and recommend their adoption by this 
Association: 

The American Bar Association declares its absolute 
and unqualified loyalty to the Government of the 
United States. 

We are convinced that the future freedom and security 
of our country depend upon the defeat of German 
military power in the present war. 

We urge the most vigorous possible prosecution of the 
war with all the strength of men and materials and 
money which the country can supply. 

We stand for the speedy dispatch of the American 
army, however raised, to the battle-front in Europe, 
where the armed enemies of our country can be found 
and fought and where our own territory can be best 
defended. 

We condemn all attempts in Congress and out of it to 
hinder and embarrass the Government of the United 
States in carrying on the war with vigor and effec- 
tiveness. 

Under whatever cover of pacificism or technicality 
such attempts are made, we deem them to be in spirit 
pro-German and in effect giving aid and comfort to the 
enemy. 

We declare the foregoing to be overwhelmingly the 
sentiment of the American bar. 



THE WAR AND DISCUSSION 

ADDRESS AT A WAR MASS MEETING IN THE COLISEUM 
CHICAGO, SEPTEMBER 14, 1917 

THE declaration of war between the United States and 
Germany completely changed the relations of all the 
inhabitants of this country to the subject of peace and war. 
Before the declaration everybody had a right to discuss in 
private and in public the question whether the United States 
should carry on war against Germany. Everybody had a 
right to argue that there was no sufficient cause for war, that 
the consequences of war would be worse than the conse- 
quences of continued peace, that it would be wiser to submit 
to the aggressions of Germany against American rights, that 
it would be better to have Germany succeed than to have the 
Allies succeed in the great conflict. Everybody holding these 
views had a right by expressing them to seek to influence 
public opinion and to affect the action of the President and 
the Congress, to whom the people of the country by their 
Constitution have entrusted the power to determine whether 
the United States shall or shall not make war. But the ques- 
tion of peace or war has now been decided by the Presi- 
dent and Congress, the sole authorities which had the right 
to decide, the lawful authorities who rested under the duty to 
decide. The question no longer remains open. It has been 
determined, and the United States is at war with Germany. 
The power to make such a decision is the most essential, 
vital, and momentous of all the powers of government. No 
nation can maintain its independence or protect its citizens 
against oppression or continue to be free, which does not vest 
the power to make that decision in some designated author- 
ity, or which does not recognize the special and imperative 

65 



66 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

duties of citizenship in time of war following upon such a 
decision lawfully made. One of the cardinal objects of the 
union which formed this nation was to create a lawful 
authority whose decision and action upon this momentous 
question should bind all the states and all the people of 
every state. 

The Constitution under which we have lived for a hundred 
and thirty years declares: "We, the people of the United 
States in order to . . . provide for the common defense, pro- 
mote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to 
ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Con- 
stitution." The Constitution so ordained, vests in Congress 
the power to declare war, to raise and support armies, to pro- 
vide and maintain a navy, and it vests in the President the 
power to command the army and navy. The power in this 
instance was exercised not suddenly or rashly, but advisedly, 
after a long delay and discussion, and patience under pro- 
vocation, after repeated diplomatic warnings to Germany 
known to the whole country, after clear notice by breach of 
diplomatic relations with Germany that the question was 
imminent, after long opportunity for reflection and discussion 
following that notice, and after a formal and deliberate pre- 
sentation by the President to Congress of the reasons for 
action, in an address which compelled the attention not of 
Congress alone, but of all Americans and of all the world, and 
which must forever stand as one of the great state papers of 
modern times. The decision was made by overwhelming 
majorities of both houses of Congress. WThen such a decision 
has been made, the duties — and therefore the rights — of 
all the people of the country immediately change. It 
becomes their duty to stop discussion upon the question 
decided, and to act, to proceed immediately to do everything 
in their power to enable the government of their country to 
succeed in the war upon which the coimtry has entered. 



THE WAR AND DISCUSSION 67 

It is a fundamental necessity of government that it shall 
have the power to decide great questions of policy, and to act 
upon its decision. In order that there shall be action follow- 
ing a decision once made, the decision must be accepted. Dis- 
cussion upon the question must be deemed closed. A nation 
which declares war and goes on discussing whether it ought 
to have declared war or not, is impotent, paralyzed, imbecile, 
and earns the contempt of mankind, and the certainty of 
humiliating defeat and subjection to foreign control. A 
democracy which cannot accept its own decisions made in 
accordance with its own laws, but must keep on endlessly 
discussing the questions already decided, has failed in the 
fundamental requirements of self-government; and, if the 
decision is to make war, the failure to exhibit capacity for 
self-government by action will inevitably result in the loss of 
the right of self-government. Before the decision of a pro- 
posal to make war, men may range themselves upon one side 
or the other of the question; but, after the decision in favor 
of war, the country has ranged itself, and the only issue left 
for the individual citizen to decide is whether he is for or 
against his country. From that time on, arguments against 
the war in which the country is engaged are enemy argu- 
ments. Their spirit is the spirit of rebellion against the 
government and laws of the United States. Their effect is to 
hinder and lessen that popular support of the government in 
carrying on the war which is necessary to success. Their 
manifest purpose is to prevent action by continuing discus- 
sion. They encourage the enemy. They tend to introduce 
delay and irresolution into our own councils. The men who 
are today speaking and writing and printing arguments 
against the war, and against everything which is being done 
to carry on the war, are rendering more effective service to 
Germany than they ever could render in the field with arms 
in their hands. The purpose and effect of what they are 



68 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

doing is so plain that it is impossible to resist the conclusion 
that the greater part of them are at heart traitors to the 
United States, and are wilfully seeking to bring about the 
triumph of Germany and the humiliation and defeat of their 
own country. 

The same principles apply to the decision of numerous 
questions which arise in carrying on the war. Somebody 
must decide such questions before there can be action, and, 
when they are decided, the action can be only in accordance 
with the decision. You may be opposed to raising an army 
in one way, and I may be opposed to raising it in another 
way; and so long as the question is undecided, we are en- 
titled to try to get our own views about it adopted; but we 
do not have the decision. The whole of the American people 
have elected a President and Congress to listen to your views 
and to mine, and then to decide the question. When they 
have decided, and a law has been passed which provides for 
raising part of the army by voluntary enlistment and part of 
the army by conscription, it is plain that the only way in 
which we can raise an army and go on with the war is by 
accepting that decision, and following that law; and any 
attempt to discourage volunteering or to oppose conscription 
is an attempt to hinder and embarrass the Government of 
the United States in the conduct of the war, and to help 
Germany by preventing our Government from raising armies 
to fight against her. 

Somebody has to decide where armies are to fight, whether 
our territory is to be defended by waiting here until we are 
attacked, or by going out and attacking the enemy before 
they get here. The power to make that decision and the 
duty to make it rest, under the Constitution of this country, 
with the President as commander-in-chief. WTien the Presi- 
dent has decided that the best way to beat Germany is to 
send our troops to France and Belgium, that is the way the 



THE WAR AND DISCUSSION 69 

war must be carried on, if at all. I think the decision was 
wise. Others may think it unwise. But when the decision 
has been made, what we think is immaterial. The Com- 
mander-in-Chief, with all the advice and all the wisdom he 
can command, has decided when and where the American 
army is to move. The army must obey, and all loyal citizens 
of the country will do their utmost to make that movement a 
success. Anybody who seeks by argument or otherwise to 
stop the execution of the order sending troops to France and 
Belgium, is simply trying to prevent the American Govern- 
ment from carrying on the war successfully. He is aiding the 
enemies of his country; and, if he understands what he is 
really doing, he is a traitor at heart. 

It is beyond doubt that many of the professed pacifists, 
the opponents of the war after the war has been entered upon, 
the men who are trying to stir up resistance to the draft, the 
men who are inciting strikes in the particular branches of 
production which are necessary for the supply of arms and 
munitions of war, are intentionally seeking to aid Germany 
and to defeat the United States. As time goes on, and the 
character of these acts becomes more and more clearly mani- 
fest, all who continue to associate with them must come 
imder the same condemnation as traitors to their country. 

There are doubtless some who do not understand what this 
struggle really is. Some who were born here resent inter- 
ference with their comfort and prosperity, and the demands 
for sacrifice which seem to them unnecessary, and they fail to 
see that the time has come when, if Americans are to keep the 
independence and liberty which their fathers won by suffer- 
ing and sacrifice, they in their turn must fight again for the 
preservation of that independence and that liberty. There 
are some born abroad who have come to this land for a 
greater freedom and broader opportunities, and have sought 
and received the privilege of American citizenship, who are 



70 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

swayed by dislike for some ally or by the sympathies of Ger- 
man kinship, and fail to see that the time has come for them 
to make good the obligations of their sworn oaths of naturali- 
zation. This is the oath that the applicant for citizenship 
makes: 

That he will support the Constitution of the United States, and that he 
absolutely and entirely renounces and abjures all allegiance and fidelity to 
any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty; . . . that he will sup- 
port and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States against all 
enemies, foreign and domestic, and bear true faith and allegiance to the 
same.^ 

All these naturalized citizens who are taking part in this 
obstruction to our Government in the conduct of the war are 
false to their oaths, are forfeiting their rights of citizenship, 
are repudiating their honorable obligations, are requiting by 
evil the good that has been done them in the generous and 
unstinted hospitality with which the people of the United 
States have welcomed them to the liberty and the oppor- 
tunities of this free land. We must believe that in many 
cases this is done because of a failure to understand what this 
war really is. 

This is a war of defense. It is perfectly described in the 
words of the Constitution which established this nation: 
" To provide for the common defense," and " To secure the 
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." The 
national defense demands not merely force, but intelligence. 
It requires foresight, consideration of the policies and pur- 
poses of other nations, understanding of the inevitable or 
probable consequences of the acts of other nations, judgment 
as to the time when successful defense may be made, and 
when it will be too late, and prompt action before it is too 
late. By entering this war in April, the United States availed 
itself of the very last opportunity to defend itself against 

» 34 United States Statutes at Large, Part I, pp. 597-598. 



THE WAR AND DISCUSSION 71 

subjection to German power before it was too late to defend 
itself successfully. 

For many years we have pursued our peaceful course of 
internal development, protected in a variety of ways. We 
have been protected by the law of nations to which all civi- 
lized governments have professed their allegiance. So long 
as we committed no injustice ourselves we could not be 
attacked without a violation of that law. We were protected 
by a series of treaties under which all the principal nations of 
the earth agreed to respect our rights and to maintain friend- 
ship with us. We were protected by an extensive system of 
arbitration created by, or consequent upon, the peace confer- 
ences at The Hague, and under which all controversies aris- 
ing under the law and under treaties were to be settled 
peaceably, by arbitration and not by force. We were pro- 
tected by the broad expanse of ocean separating us from all 
great military powers, and by the bold assertion of the 
Monroe Doctrine, that if any of those powers undertook to 
overpass the ocean and establish itself upon these western 
continents, that action would be regarded as dangerous to the 
peace and safety of the United States, and would call upon 
us to act in our defense. We were protected by the fact that 
the policy and the fleet of Great Britain were well known to 
support the Monroe Doctrine. We were protected by the 
delicate balance of power in Europe, which made it seem not 
worth while for any power to engage in a conflict here at the 
risk of suffering from its rivals there. 

All these protections were swept away by the war which 
began in Europe in 1914. The war was begun by the con- 
certed action of Germany and Austria, — the invasion of 
Servia by Austria on the east, and the invasion of Luxem- 
burg and Belgium by Germany on the west. Both inva- 
sions were in violation of the law of nations, and in violation 
of the faith of treaties. Everybody knew that Russia was 



7^ UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

bound in good faith to come to the relief of Servia, that 
France was bound by treaty to come to the aid of Russia, 
that England was bound by treaty to come to the aid of 
Belgium, so that the invasion of those two small states was 
the beginning of a general European war. These acts which 
have drenched the world with blood were defended and justi- 
fied in the bold avowal of the German Government that the 
interests of the German State were superior to the obligations 
of law and the faith of treaties; that no law or treaty was 
binding upon Germany which it was for the interest of Ger- 
many to violate. All pretense of obedience to the law of 
nations and of respect for solemn promises was thrown off; 
and in lieu of that system of lawful and moral restraint upon 
power which Christian civilization has been building up for a 
century, was reinstated the cynical philosophy of Frederick 
the Great, the greatest of the Hohenzollerns, who declared: 

If possible, the powers of Europe should be made envious against one 
another, in order to give occasion for a cowp when the opportunity arises."^ 

If a ruler is obliged to sacrifice his own person for the welfare of his sub- 
jects, he is^all the more obliged to sacrifice treaty engagements, the con- 
tinuance of which would be harmful to his country. Is it better that a 
nation should perish, or that a sovereign should break his treaty ? * 

Statesmanship can be reduced to three principles: — First, to maintain 
your power, and, according to circumstances, to extend it. Second, to 
form an alliance only for your own advantage. Third, to command fear 
and respect, even in the most disastrous times. * 

^ Oeuvres de Frideric le Grand/XIY/ ExposS du Gouvernement Prtissien/Des 
Principes sur lesquels il rovle, avec quelques reflexions politiques. Berlin: 1848, 
vol. 9, p. 188. 

' Histoire de mon temps, tome I, Avant-propos, pp. xxvi-xxvii. Oeuvres de 
Fr6dSric le Grand, red de Prusse (Berlin, 1846-8), tome II. 

' Les MatinSes Royales, ou Vart de regner: Opuscule inedit de FrSdSric II, dit 
le Grand, roi de Prusse: London, Williams and Morgate, 1863, p. 29. This little 
book, consisting of five of the seven MatinSes Royales, was edited by the late Lord 
Acton from a copy of the original work at Sans Souci in 1806, by Baron de 
M^neval, private secretary to Napoleon. As regards the authenticity of the 
Matinies Royales, see an article entitled "The Confessions of Frederick the Great" 
and a review of "Buff on: sa famille, ses collaboratexirs et ses familiers": MSmoires 
par M. Humbert-Bazile, son seerStaire; mis en ordre, annotSs et augmertUs de docu- 



THE WAR AND DISCUSSION 73 

Do not be ashamed of making interested alliances from which you your- 
self can derive the whole advantage. Do not make the foolish mistake of 
not breaking them when you believe your interests require it. . . . 

Above all, uphold the following maxim : — To despoil your neighbors is 
to deprive them of the means of injuring you.^ 

When he is about to conclude a treaty with some foreign power, if a 
sovereign remembers he is a Christian, he is lost.' 

From 1914 until the present, in a war waged with a revolt- 
ing barbarity unequalled since the conquests of Genghis 
Khan, Germany has violated every rule agreed upon by civi- 
lized nations in modern times to mitigate the barbarities of 
war or to protect the rights of non-combatants and neutrals. 
She had no grievance against Belgium except that Belgium 
stood upon her admitted rights and refused to break the 
faith of her treaties by consenting that the neutrality of her 
territory should be violated to give Germany an avenue for 
the attack upon France. The German Kaiser has taken pos- 
session of the territory of Belgium and subjected her people to 
the hard yoke of a brutal soldiery. He has extorted vast sums 
from her peaceful cities. He has burned her towns, and bat- 
tered down her noble churches. He has stripped the Belgian 
factories of their machinery, and deprived them of the raw 
materials of manufacture. He has carried away her work- 
men by tens of thousands into slavery, and her women into 
worse than slavery. He has slain peaceful non-combatants 
by the hundred, undeterred by the helplessness of age, of 
infancy, or of womanhood. He has done the same in North- 
ern France, in Poland, in Servia, in Rumania. In all of these 
countries women have been outraged by the thousand, by 
tens of thousands, and who ever heard of a German soldier 
being punished for rape, or robbery, or murder ? These re- 
volting outrages upon humanity and law are not the casual 

ments in6diis par M. Henri NadauU de Buff on (Paris: Renouard), in the Home 
and Foreign Review for 1863, pp. 152-171, 704-711. 
1 Ibid., pp. 18-19. » Ibid., p. 7. 



74 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

incidents of war; they are the results of a settled policy of 
frightf ulness answering to the maxim of the Great Frederick 
to " command respect through fear." 

Why were these things done by Germany ? The answer 
rests upon the accumulated evidence of German acts and 
German words so conclusive that no pretense can cover it, 
no sophistry can disguise it. The answer is, that this war was 
begun and these crimes against humanity were done because 
Germany was pursuing the hereditary policy of the Hohen- 
zollerns, and following the instincts of the arrogant military 
caste which rules Prussia, to grasp the over-lordship of the 
civilized world and establish an empire in which she should 
play the role of ancient Rome. They were done because 
Prussian militarism still pursues the policy of power through 
conquest, of aggrandizement through force and fear, which in 
little more than two centuries has brought the puny Mark of 
Brandenburg with its million and a half of people, to the con- 
trol of a vast empire, — the greatest armed force of the 
modern world. It now appears beyond all possibility of 
doubt, that this war was made by Germany in pursuit of a 
long and settled purpose. For many years she had been pre- 
paring to do exactly what she has done, with a thoroughness, 
a perfection of plans, and a vastness of provision in men, 
munitions and supplies, never before equalled or approached 
in human history. She brought on the war when she chose, 
because she chose, in the belief that she could conquer the 
earth nation by nation. 

All nations are egotistical, all peoples think most highly of 
their own qualities, and regard other peoples as inferior; but 
the egotism of the ruling class in Prussia is beyond all 
example, and it is active and aggressive. They believe that 
Germany is entitled to rule the world by virtue of her superi- 
ority in all those quahties which they include under the term 
Kultur, and by reason of her power to compel submission by 



THE WAR AND DISCUSSION 75 

the sword. That belief does not evaporate in theory. It is 
translated into action, and this war is the action which re- 
sults. This belief in national superiority and the right to 
assert it everywhere is a tradition from the Great Frederick. 
It has been instilled into the minds of the German people 
through all the universities and schools. It has been preached 
from her pulpits and taught by her philosophers and his- 
torians. It has been maintained by her government, and it 
will never cease to furnish the motive for the people of 
Prussia, so long as German power enables the military autoc- 
racy of Prussia to act upon it with success. 

Plainly, if the power of the German government is to con- 
tinue, America can no longer look for protection to the law of 
nations, or the faith of treaties, or the instincts of humanity, 
or the restraints of modern civilization. 

Plainly, also, if we had stayed out of the war, and Ger- 
many had won, there would no longer have been a balance of 
power in Europe, or a British fleet to support the Monroe 
Doctrine and to protect America. 

Does any one indulge in the foolish assumption that Ger- 
many would not then have extended her lust for power by 
conquest, to the American Continent ? Let him consider 
what it is for which the nations of Europe have been chiefly 
contending for centuries past. It has been for colonies. It 
has been to bring the unoccupied or weakly-held spaces of 
the earth under their flags and their political control, in order 
to increase their trade and their power. Spain, Holland, 
Portugal, England, France, have all had their turn, and have 
covered the earth with their possessions. For thirty years 
Germany, the last comer, has been pressing forward with 
feverish activity the acquisition of stations for her power on 
every coast and every sea, restive and resentful because she 
has been obliged to take what others have left. Europe, Asia, 
and Africa have been taken up. The Ajnericas alone remain. 



76 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

Here in the vast and undefended spaces of the New World, 
fraught with potential wealth incalculable, Germany could 
" find her place in the sun," to use her Emperor's phrase; 
Germany could find her " liberty of national evolution," to 
use his phrase again. Every traditional policy, every in- 
stinct of predatory Prussia would urge her into this new 
field of aggrandizement. What would prevent ? The Mon- 
roe Doctrine ? Yes. But what is the Monroe Doctrine against 
a nation which respects only force, unless it can be main- 
tained by force ? We already know how the German Govern- 
ment feels about the Monroe Doctrine. Bismarck declared 
it to be a piece of colossal impudence; and when President 
Roosevelt interfered to assert the doctrine for the protection 
of Venezuela, the present Kaiser declared that if he had 
then had a larger navy he would have taken America by 
the scruff of the neck. If we had stayed out of the war, and 
Germany had won, we should have had to defend the Mon- 
roe Doctrine by force, or abandon it; and if we abandoned it, 
there would have been a German naval base in the Caribbean 
commanding the Panama Canal, depriving us of that strate- 
gic fine which unites our eastern and western coasts, and 
depriving us of the protection which the expanse of ocean 
once gave. And an America unable or unwilling to protect 
herself against the establishment of a German naval base 
in the Caribbean would lie at the mercy of Germany, sub- 
ject to Germany's orders. America's independence would be 
gone unless she was ready to fight for it, and her security 
would thenceforth be, not the security of freedom, but only 
a security purchased by submission. 

But if America had stayed out of the war and Germany 
had won, could we have defended the Monroe Doctrine ? 
Could we have maintained our independence ? For an 
answer to this question, consider what we have been doing 
since the second of April last, when war was declared. Con- 



THE WAR AND DISCUSSION 77 

gress has been in continuous session, passing with unpre- 
cedented rapidity laws containing grants of power and of 
money unexampled in our history. The executive estab- 
Hshment has been straining every nerve to prepare for war. 
The ablest and strongest leaders of industrial activity have 
been called from all parts of the country to aid the Govern- 
ment. The people of the country have generously responded 
with noble loyalty and enthusiasm to the call for the surren- 
der of money and of customary rights, and the supply of 
men, to the service of the country. Nearly half a year has 
passed, and still we are not ready to fight. I am not blaming 
the Government. It was inevitable. Preparation for modern 
war cannot be made briefly or speedily. It requires time, 
long periods of time; and the more peaceful and unprepared 
for war a democracy is, the longer is the time required. 

It would have required just as long for America to prepare 
for war if we had stayed out of this war, and Germany had 
won, and we had undertaken then to defend the Monroe Doc- 
trine, or to defend our coasts when we had lost the protection 
of the Monroe Doctrine. Month after month would have 
passed with no adequate army ready to fight, just as these 
recent months have passed. But what would Germany have 
been doing to us in the meantime ? How long would it have 
been before our attempts at preparation would have been 
stopped by German arms ? A country that is forced to defend 
itself against the aggression of a military autocracy, always 
prepared for war, must itseK be prepared for war beforehand, 
or it never will have the opportunity to prepare. 

The history, the character, the avowed principles of action, 
the manifest and undisguised purposes of the German autoc- 
racy, made it clear and certain that if America stayed out of 
the great war, and Germany won, America would forthwith 
be required to defend herself, and would be unable to defend 
herself against the same lust for conquest, the same will to 



78 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

dominate the world, which has made Europe a bloody 
shambles. 

When Germany did actually apply her principles of action 
to us; when by the invasion of Belgium she had violated the 
solemn covenant she had made with us to observe the law of 
neutrality established for the protection of peaceful states; 
when she had arrogantly demanded that American com- 
merce should surrender its lawful right of passage upon the 
high seas under penalty of destruction; when she had sunk 
American ships and sent to their death hundreds of American 
citizens, peaceful men, women, and children, when the Gulf- 
light and the Falaba and the Persia and the Arabic and the 
Sussex and the Lusitania had been torpedoed without warn- 
ing in contempt of law and of humanity; when the German 
Embassy at Washington had been found to be the headquar- 
ters of a vast conspiracy of corruption within our country, 
inciting sedition and concealing infernal machines in the 
cargoes of our ships, and blowing up our factories with the 
workmen laboring in them; and when the Government of 
Germany had been discovered attempting to incite Mexico 
and Japan to form a league with her to attack us, and to bring 
about a dismemberment of our territory; then the question 
presented to the American people was not what shall be done 
regarding each of these specific aggressions taken by itself, 
but what shall be done by America to defend her commerce, 
her territory, her citizens, her independence, her liberty, her 
life as a nation, against the continuance of assaults already 
begun by that mighty and conscienceless power which has 
swept aside every restraint and every principle of Christian 
civilization, and is seeking to force upon a subjugated 
world the dark and cruel rule of a barbarous past. The ques- 
tion was, how shall peaceful and unprepared and liberty- 
loving America save herself from subjection to the military 
power of Germany ? 



THE WAR AND DISCUSSION 79 

There was but one possible answer. There was but one 
chance for rescue, and that was to act at once, while the other 
democracies of the world were still maintaining their liberty 
against the oppressor; to prepare at once while the armies 
and the navies of England and France and Italy and Russia 
and Rumania were holding down Germany so that she could 
not attack us while our preparation was but half accom- 
plished, to strike while there were allies loving freedom like 
ourselves to strike with us, to do our share to prevent the 
German Kaiser from acquiring that domination over the 
world which would have left us without friends to aid us, 
without preparation, and without the possibility of successful 
defense. 

The instinct of the American democracy which led it to 
act when it did, arose from a long-delayed and reluctant con- 
sciousness still vague and half -expressed, that this is no ordi- 
nary war which the world is waging. It is no contest for 
petty policies and profits. It is a mighty and all-embracing 
struggle between two conflicting principles of human right 
and human duty. It is a conflict between the divine right of 
kings to govern mankind through armies and nobles, and the 
right of the peoples of the earth who toil and endure and 
aspire, to govern themselves by law under justice, and in the 
freedom of individual manhood. It is the climax of the 
supreme struggle between autocracy and democracy. No 
nation can stand aside and be free from its effects. The two 
systems cannot endure together in the same world. If autoc- 
racy triumphs, military power, lustful of dominion, supreme 
in strength, intolerant of human rights, holding itself above 
the reach of law, superior to morals, to faith, to compassion, 
will crush out the free democracies of the world. If autoc- 
racy is defeated and nations are compelled to recognize the 
rule of law and of morals, then and then only will democracy 
be safe. 



80 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

To this great conflict for human rights and human Hberty, 
America has committed herself. There can be no backward 
step. There must be either humihating and degrading sub- 
mission, or terrible defeat, or glorious victory. It was no 
human will that brought us to this pass. It was not the 
President. It was not Congress. It was not the press. It 
was not any political party. It was not any section or part of 
our people. It was the fact that in the providence of God the 
mighty forces that determine the destinies of mankind be- 
yond the control of human purpose, have brought to us the 
time, the occasion, the necessity, that this peaceful people so 
long enjoying the blessings of liberty and justice for which 
their fathers fought and sacrificed, shall again gird themselves 
for conflict, and with all the forces of manhood nurtured and 
strengthened by liberty, offer again the sacrifice of posses- 
sions and of life itself, that this nation may still be free, that 
the mission of American democracy shall not have failed, 
that the world shall be free. 



JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES 

ADDRESS AT A LUNCHEON IN HONOR OF THE IMPERIAL 
JAPANESE MISSION. NEW YORK. OCTOBER 1, 1917 

At a luncheon given at the Bankers' Club in New York City, October 1, 1917, by 
Messrs. Cutting, Baker, and Morgan, of that city, the toastmaster said that the 
distinguished guests were present to greet Viscount Ishii and his associates, and to 
express their feeling of amity toward the great nation they represented. They were 
present to emphasize their desire to do everything practical and possible to cement 
firmly and forever the friendly relations between the two great countries. He con- 
tinued: "The first speaker on the program, his history, achievements, his position, 
are well known. I have the great honor of presenting America's foremost citizen, 
the Honorable Elihu Root." 

Mr. Root spoke as follows: 

I AM under great obligation to the hosts of this luncheon 
for giving me the opportunity to join in testifying to 
respect and admiration and warmth of friendship for the 
gentlemen who have come so far across the Pacific to extend 
to us assurances of the friendship of the great and wonderful 
nation which they represent. 

I find myself, without any aid or suggestion on my part, 
put down upon the program to speak to the formal toast, 
*' International Friendship." But neither the time, nor the 
character of such a meeting as this, would justify a long dis- 
cussion of that rather broad subject. We are in midst of a 
transition which is deeply affecting international friendship. 
We are passing out of one condition of international relation 
into another and widely-differing condition. We recall the 
maxim of Frederick the Great, that a ruler should never be 
ashamed to make an alliance which was entirely for his own 
advantage, and should never hesitate to break it when it 
ceased to be for his advantage. And the further maxim, that 

81 



82 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

it was the duty of a ruler, when he found that a treaty was no 
longer beneficial to his people, to break it; for, he said, " Is 
it not better that a ruler should break his word than that his 
people should suffer ? " A fine altruistic view of a ruler's 
duty, which regarded a treaty as being merely a matter 
between himself and another ruler, so that only his conscience 
was involved in the breaking of it and not at all the con- 
science of his people; so that if he would do that violence to 
his own nature which was involved in breaking a treaty for 
the benefit of his people, it was a noble self-sacrifice. 

Now that illustrates the old condition of international 
relation. The relation was between rulers, between sover- 
eigns, not between the peoples; and the sovereigns were 
pursuing their own settled policies — policies continued from 
generation to generation, always involving the possibility of 
aggrandizement, of increasing power, of increasing dominion; 
and the people were not interested in the slightest. All the 
great wars that have convulsed the world since the Peace of 
Westphalia have been, down to very recent days, wars in 
which some ruler was attempting to increase his power and 
his dominion, and other rulers were attempting to prevent 
him from increasing it. Now, however, the business of 
foreign affairs is passing into the hands of democracies; and 
in the hands of democracies the old evil of dynastic policies is 
disappearing; for democracies are incapable of maintaining 
or following the kind of policy which has involved the world 
in war so many, many times during the past centuries. A 
democracy cannot in its very nature pursue such a policy. 
The mere necessity of discussion, public discussion, in order 
to secure the appropriations, the expenditure of money, and 
the action of public representatives, the mere necessity for 
discussion, is destructive of such policies. 

But we are running into other diflSculties. Democracies 
have their dangers, and they have their dangers in foreign 



JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES 83 

aflFairs; and those dangers arise from the fact that the great 
mass of people have not the time or the opportunity, or in 
most cases, the capacity to study and understand the intri- 
cate and compHcated relations which exist necessarily 
between nations. And being so situated that they cannot 
study the relations, cannot become familiar with the vast 
mass of facts which they involve, cannot become familiar 
with the characters and purposes of other nations, they are 
peculiarly open to misrepresentation and misunderstanding. 
The great danger to international relations with the democ- 
racies is misunderstanding, — a misunderstanding of one's 
own rights; a misunderstanding of one's own duties, and of 
the rights and duties of other peoples. 

Now we are peculiarly open to that danger in this country. 
We have been so isolated from other nations that we have, 
in general, but very slender information regarding them, and 
we are peculiarly liable to be misled. It is only a very few 
years since the people of the United States really regarded 
the department of foreign relations as a perfectly useless 
bureau, and ambassadors and ministers as of no practical 
value at all. You would get a very large degree of assent ten 
years ago to the proposition that we might better abolish the 
whole childish folly, with all its fuss and feathers. Now we 
are passing out of that condition, and we are finding anti- 
dotes for that evil. This great war is teaching the people of 
every country, even the dullest and the most seK-centered, 
that no nation can live unto itseK alone. It is teaching the 
interdependence of mankind; it is teaching the unity of 
civilization; it is teaching the singleness of purpose that goes 
with duty and love of humanity, and the ideahsm that per- 
vades all noble natures, whatever the language be and what- 
ever the country be. In fact, more and more this war grows 
to be a conflict — not between nations, not between this, 
that, and the other people, but between certain principles of 



84 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

modem civilization and the principles of a dark and dreadful 
past. 

There never has been in this country, so far as my obser- 
vation and reading go, any more dangerous and persistent 
misrepresentation regarding the relations, the purposes, the 
character of another country with which we have relations, 
than in the case of the relations between the United States 
and Japan. I have not the slightest doubt that the misrep- 
resentations and the attempts to create bad feeling among 
the people who have it all in their hands now, — the attempts 
to create bad feeling between the United States and Japan, 
have been very largely the result of a fixed and settled pur- 
pose; and it is growing day by day more plain that this pur- 
pose has formed a part of the policy of that great ruling caste 
of Germany which is attempting to subjugate the world 
today. It goes back again to a maxim of the great Frederick, 
who advised his successors that it was wise to create jealousies 
among the nations of Europe, in order that they might not 
be an aid to each other when the opportunity came for a 
coup. That policy has been pursued everywhere in the 
civilized world. While Germany has been incapable of 
estimating the great moral forces that move mankind; while 
she has been incapable of forming a judgment as to what were 
the real temper and spirit of England, of the British colonies, 
of the American republic, of the French republic, of the 
Italian constitutional monarchy, she has had a chemical 
affinity for everything that is base in every country. She 
has appealed to all the baser feelings and conditions; she has 
appealed to cupidity; she has appealed to prejudice, and to 
all the lower passions of men everywhere in the world. 
Wherever she could array evil against good; wherever she 
could destroy content and neighborliness and respect for 
law, and the desire for the better things of life, there she has 
been working to subjugate. All the baser passions received 



JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES 85 

impetus, fuel, encouragement from her, and a part of her 
effort has been, I have no doubt whatever, to create estrange- 
ment, if possible, between the United States and Japan. 

Now I wish in the first place to express my own most 
grateful appreciation of the fine and noble way in which the 
Viscount Ishii and his Mission, inspired and commissioned 
by the Government of Japan, have come to America to dispel 
all this cloud of misunderstanding and suspicion and doubt. 
The frank and sincere utterances of the Viscount are like 
rays of sun dispelling the cloud. There is very great virtue in 
speaking face to face. There is great virtue in letting in the 
light. There is a good quality in human nature which makes 
men like each other and trust each other the more, when they 
meet each other face to face; and I think it certain that the 
visit of this Mission to America begins a new era of under- 
standing and friendship between these two great nations that 
look at each other across the Pacific, which will revive 
memories of the days past, of those early years in which this 
great republic served its part in introducing the new Japan 
to the nations of the world. 

I wish to say one other thing. For many years I was very 
familiar with our own department of foreign affairs, and for 
some years I was specially concerned in its operation. 
During that time there were many diflScult, perplexing, and 
doubtful questions to be discussed and settled between the 
United States and Japan. During that time the thoughtless 
or malicious section of the press was doing its worst. During 
that time the demagogue, seeking cheap reputation by stir- 
ring up the passions of the people to whom he appealed, was 
doing his worst. There were many incidents out of which 
quarrels and conflict might have arisen; and I hope you will 
all remember what I say of them: I say that during all that 
period there never was a moment when the Government of 
Japan was not frank, sincere, friendly, and most solicitous, 



86 UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 

not to enlarge but to minimize and do away with all causes of 
controversy. No one who has any familiarity at all with life 
can be mistaken in a negotiation as to whether the one with 
whom he is negotiating is trying to prevent or trying to 
bring about a quarrel. That is a fundamental thing that you 
cannot be mistaken about. And there never was a more 
consistent and noble advocacy of peace, of international 
friendship, and of real good understanding, in the diplomacy 
of this world, than was exhibited by the representatives of 
Japan, both here and in Japan, during all these years in their 
relations to the United States. I wish for no better, no more 
frank and friendly intercourse between my country and any 
other country than the intercourse by which Japan in those 
years illustrated the best qualities of the new diplomacy 
between nations, as distinguished from the old diplomacy be- 
tween rulers. 

And in the most delightful recollection of those years, and 
most agreeable appreciation for what you have now done, I 
beg you, my dear Viscount, when you return to your home, 
that you will say to the Government and to the people of 
Japan: The people of America, who now hold their foreign 
affairs in their hands, wish to be forever friends and 
brethren of the people of Japan. 



THE MISSION TO RUSSIA 



THE MISSION TO RUSSIA 

The thirteen British colonies of America which joined in the declaration 
of independence on July 4, 1776, laid down certain principles which were 
revolutionary then and now, and which will engender revolutions until 
they shall triumph, not merely in the minds and hearts of men, but in the 
form of government and in the practice of nations. 

The last people to confess its faith in the right to alter or abolish a form 
of government which had become destructive of the ends for which it was 
formed, and to institute a new government " as to them shall seem most 
likely to effect their safety and happiness " is the Russian people; and 
like the revolutionary statesmen of 1776, the revolutionary statesmen of 
Russia of 1917 have issued an appeal to the peoples in accordance with 
" a decent respect to the opinions of mankind." 

We do not know at present the history of the movement which resulted 
in the abdication of the Romanoffs and the substitution in their place of a 
government " of the people, by the people, and for the people." We know 
that the leaders of thought in Russia have prayed, have lived, have 
worked, have died for better things, and we who believe in better things 
know that they have not worked and died in vain. The immediate cause 
of the overthrow of the Romanoff dynasty seems to have been the issue of 
two ukases suspending the sittings of the Duma and the Council of the 
Empire; but behind these was the longing for better things which took 
advantage of the condition produced by the unwisdom of the Czar, just as 
it would have taken advantage of a favorable turn of affairs at some future 
time. 

On March 15, 1917, the Czar abdicated the throne, which was in fact no 
longer his, in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Michael, and the latter, 
either believing in the American doctrine of the consent of the governed or 
not quite sure that the brother could pass title to what he no longer pos- 
sessed, would apparently have none of it unless the people would insist upon 
his accepting the throne. The following is the text of the Czar's abdication: 
We, Nicholas II, by the Grace of God, Emperor of all the Russias, 
Czar of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland, etc., make known to all 
our faithful subjects: 

In the day of the great struggle against a foreign foe, who has been 
striving for three years to enslave our country, God has wished to send 
to Russia new and painful trial. Interior troubles threaten to have a 
fatal repercussion on the final outcome of the war. The destinies of 



90 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

Russia and the honor of our heroic army, the happiness of the people, 
and all the future of our dear Fatherland require that the war be 
prosecuted at all cost to a victorious end. The cruel enemy is making 
his last effort, and the moment is near when our valiant army, in con- 
cert with those of our glorious Allies, will definitely chastise the foe. 

In these decisive days in the life of Russia we believe our people 
should have the closest union and organization of all their forces for 
the realization of speedy victory. For this reason, in accord with the 
Duma of the Empire, we have considered it desirable to abdicate the 
throne of Russia and lay aside our supreme power. 

Not wishing to be separated from our loved son, we leave our 
heritage to our brother, the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch, 
blessing his advent to the throne of Russia. We hand over the 
Government to our brother in full union with the representatives of 
the nation who are seated in the legislative chambers, taking this step 
with an inviolable oath in the name of our well-beloved country. 

We call on all faithful sons of the Fatherland to fulfill their sacred 
patriotic duty in this painful moment of national trial and to aid our 
brother and the representatives of the nation in bringing Russia into 
the path of prosperity and glory. May God aid Russia. 

The following is the text of the Grand Duke Michael's statement: 

This heavy responsibility has come to me at the voluntary request 
of my brother, who has transferred the imperial throne to me during a 
period of warfare which is accompanied with unprecedented popular 
disturbances. 

Moved by the thought, which is in the minds of the entire people, 
that the good of the country is paramount, I have adopted the firm 
resolution to accept the supreme power only if this be the will of our 
great people, who, by a plebiscite organized by their representatives 
in a constituent assembly, shall establish a form of government and 
new fundamental laws for the Russian State. 

Consequently, invoking the benediction of our Lord, I urge all 
citizens of Russia to submit to the Provisional Government, estab- 
lished upon the initiative of the Duma and invested with full plenary 
powers, until such time, which will follow with as little delay as pos- 
sible, as the Constitutent Assembly, on a basis of universal, direct, 
equal, and secret suffrage, shall, by its decision as to the new form of 
government, express the will of the people. 

The following, omitting the names of the Cabinet, is the text of the 
appeal of the Executive Committee, a charter of liberty and of a nation's 
hope: 



MISSION TO RUSSIA 91 

Citizens : The Executive Committee of the Duma, with the aid and 
support of the garrison of the capital and its inhabitants, has suc- 
ceeded in triumphing over the obnoxious forces of the old regime in 
such a manner that we are able to proceed to a more stable organiza- 
tion of the executive power, with men whose past political activity 
assures them the country's confidence. 

[The names of the members of the new Government are then given 
and the appeal continues :] 

The new Cabinet will base its policy on the following principles: 

First — An immediate general amnesty for all political and 
religious offenses, including terrorist acts and military and agrarian 
offenses. 

Second — Liberty of speech and of the press; freedom for alliances, 
unions, and strikes, with the extension of these liberties to military 
officials within the limits admitted by military requirements. 

Third — Abolition of all social, religious, and national restrictions. 

Foiu-th — To proceed forthwith to the preparation and convocation 
of a constitutional assembly, based on universal suffrage, which will 
establish a governmental regime. 

Fifth — The substitution of the police by a national militia, with 
chiefs to be elected and responsible to the Government. 

Sixth — Communal elections to be based on universal suffrage. 

Seventh — The troops which participated in the revolutionary 
movement will not be disarmed, but will remain in Petrograd. 

Eighth — While maintaining strict military discipline for troops 
on active service, it is desirable to abrogate for soldiers all restrictions 
in the enjoyment of social rights accorded other citizens. 

The Provisional Government desires to add that it has no inten- 
tion to profit by the circumstances of the war to delay the realization 
of the measures of reform above mentioned. 
On March 22, 1917, the American ambassador to Russia, the Honorable 
David R. Francis, formally recognized the Provisional Government on 
behalf of the United States, in the following language: 

I have the honor as the ambassador and representative of the 
Government of the United States accredited to Russia, to state in 
accordance with instructions, that the Government of the United 
States has recognized the new Government of Russia, and I, as 
ambassador of the United States, will be pleased to continue inter- 
course with Russia through the medium of the new Government. 
May the cordial relations existing between the two countries continue 
to obtain. May they prove mutually satisfactory and beneficial. 
Paul Milukoff, the Russian Foreign Minister, replied in the following 
words : 



92 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

Permit me, in the name of the Provisional Government, to answer 
the act of recognition by the United States. You have been able to 
follow the events which have established the new order of afiFairs for 
free Russia. I have been more than once in your country, and can 
bear witness that the ideals which are represented by the Provisiorial 
Government are the same as underlie the existence of your own nation. 
I hope that this great change which has come to Russia will do much 
to bring us closer together than we have ever been before. During 
the last few days I have received many congratulations from promi- 
nent men in your country, assuring me that the public opinion of the 
United States is in sympathy with us. Permit me to thank you. 
We are proud to be first recognized by a nation whose ideals we 
cherish. 
On May 12, 1917, the Department of State thus announced the mem- 
bers of a Special Diplomatic Mission of the United States of America 
to Russia: 

EiJHU Root, of New York, Ambassador Extraordinary. 
Charles R. Crane, of Illinois, ' 

John R. Mott, of New York, 
Cyrus H. McCormick, of Illinois, 
Samuel R. Bertron, of New York, 
James Duncan, of Massachusetts, 
Charles Edward Russell, of New York, 
Major-General Hugh L. Scott, 1 Ministers representing the 
Rear-Admiral James H. Glennon, J Army and Navy. 
President Wilson himself prepared and transmitted to the Provisional 
Government of Russia the following address: 

In view of the approaching visit of the American Mission to 
Russia to express the deep friendship of the American people for the 
people of Russia, and to discuss the best and most practical means of 
cooperation between the two peoples in carrying the present struggle 
for the freedom of all peoples to a successful consummation, it seems 
opportune and appropriate that I should state again, in the light of 
this new partnership, the objects the United States has had in mind 
in entering the war. Those objects have been very much beclouded 
during the past few weeks by mistaken and misleading statements, 
and the issues at stake are too momentous, too tremendous, too 
significant for the whole human race, to permit any misinterpretations 
or misunderstandings, however slight, to remain uncorrected for a 
moment. 

The war has begun to go against Germany, and in their desperate 
desire to escape the inevitable ultimate defeat, those who are in 



Ministers 
Plenipotentiary. 



MISSION TO RUSSIA 93 

authority in Germany are using every possible instrumentality, are 
making use even of the influence of groups and parties among their 
own subjects to whom they have never been just or fair, or even 
tolerant, to promote a propaganda on both sides of the sea which will 
preserve for them their influence at home and their power abroad, to 
the undoing of the very men they are using. 

The position of America in this war is so clearly avowed that no 
man can be excused for mistaking it. She seeks no material profit or 
aggrandizement of any kind. She is fighting for no advantage or 
selfish object of her own, but for the hberation of peoples everywhere 
from the aggressions of autocratic force. 

The ruling classes in Germany have begun of late to profess a like 
liberality and justice of purpose, but only to preserve the power they 
have set up in Germany and the selfish advantages which they have 
wrongly gained for themselves and their private projects of power all 
the way from Berlin to Bagdad and beyond. Government after 
Government has by their influence, without open conquest of its ter- 
ritory, been linked together in a net of intrigue directed against 
nothiag less than the peace and liberty of the world. The meshes of 
that intrigue must be broken, but cannot be broken unless wrongs 
already done are imdone; and adequate measures must be taken to 
prevent it from ever again being re woven or repaired. 

Of course, the Imperial German Government and those whom it is 
using for their own undoing are seeking to obtain pledges that the war 
will end in the restoration of the statv^ quo ante. It was the status quo 
ante out of which this iniquitous war issued forth, the power of the 
Imperial German Government within the Empire and its widespread 
domination and influence outside of that Empire. That status must 
be altered iu such fashion as to prevent any such hideous thing from 
ever happening again. 

We are fighting for the liberty, the self-government, and the 
undictated development of all peoples, and every feature of the settle- 
ment that concludes this war must be conceived and executed for that 
purpose. Wrongs must first be righted, and then adequate safeguards 
must be created to prevent their being committed again. We ought 
not to consider remedies merely because they have a pleasing and 
sonorous sound. Practical questions can be settled only by practical 
means. Phrases will not accomplish the result. Effective readjust- 
ments will, and whatever readjustments are necessary must be 
made. 

But they must follow a principle, and that principle is plain. No 
people must be forced under sovereignty under which it does not wish 



94 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

to live. No territory must change hands except for the purpose of 
securing those who inhabit it a fair chance of life and liberty. No 
indemnities must be insisted on except those that constitute payment 
for manifest wrongs done. No readjustments of power must be made 
except such as will tend to secure the future peace of the world and the 
future welfare and happiness of its peoples. 

And then the free peoples of the world must draw together in some 
common covenant, some genuine and practical cooperation, that will 
in effect combine their force to secure peace and justice in the dealings 
of nations with one another. 

The brotherhood of mankind must no longer be a fair but empty 
phrase; it must be given a structure of force and reality. The nations 
must realize their common life and effect a workable partnership to 
secure that life against the aggressions of autocratic and self-pleasing 
power. 

For these things we can afford to pour out blood and treasure. For 

these are the things we have always professed to desire; and unless we 

pour out blood and treasure now and succeed, we may never be able 

to unite or show conquering force again in the great cause of human 

liberty. The day has come to conquer or submit. If the forces of 

autocracy can divide us they will overcome us ; if we stand together 

victory is certain and the liberty which victory will secure. We can 

afford then to be generous, but we cannot afford then or now to be 

weak or omit any single guarantee of justice and security. 

On June 13, the Mission arrived in Petrograd. It left Petrograd on its 

return July 9, sailing from Vladivostok July 21, and during this interval 

Mr. Root deUvered the addresses contained in this section of the present 

volume, and members of the Mission delivered addresses which, together 

with Mr. Root's reprinted from this volume, are published in separate 

form. The addresses Mr. Root delivered in the United States upon his 

return from the Russian mission are likewise included in this volume and 

are among the addresses collected and issued in the separate reprint. 

On April 16, 1816, the great Napoleon is reported by De las Casas to 
have said, after referring to the perilous situation in which the continent of 
Europe then was, that " in the present state of things before one hundred 
years all Europe may be all Cossack or all repubhcan." Let us hope that, 
whether Cossack or republican, the new Europe will accept the principles 
of the Declaration of Independence of the United States and make them 
realities. 

In selecting a chairman for the Russian Diplomatic Mission, President 
Wilson signified the importance he attached to it, by naming EUhu Root, 
who as Secretary of War, Secretary of State, and Senator of the United 
States has an international as well as a national reputation. 



MISSION TO RUSSIA 95 

Mr. Root's profound and sympathetic interest in the Russian revolu- 
tion had been evidenced, prior to his appointment, by letters addressed to 
officers of two pubUc meetings held in New York City, to hearten, en- 
courage, and acclaim the patriots who organized and piloted it. These 
letters appropriately introduce the series of addresses made by Mr. Root 
while in Russia, and since his return : 

Letter to Charles R. Flint, March 24, 1917 

I regret that I am prevented from attending the meeting to be held 
tomorrow evening by friends and sympathizers with the Russian 
people. I agree with your purpose. I look with satisfaction and joy 
upon the establishment of free self-government in Russia. I have 
confidence in the permanence of the new popular government, as 
against all possible reactions, for two main reasons. 

The first reason is the admirable self-control which the leaders of 
the new government and their followers as well have exhibited. That 
is the supreme test of a people's capacity for self-government. All 
men worthy the name are brave. All men worthy the name are 
patriotic; but only those who can keep their heads cool, restrain their 
passions, and love justice even while they strike, are fit for popular 
self-government. The people of Russia are answering nobly to that 
test; and while they continue in the same spirit — as I believe 
they wiU — their new government wUl be impregnable against all 
reactionary movements. 

The second ground for my confidence is that this wonderful change 
in Russia marches with and is part of the mighty and I believe irresis- 
tible movement of the whole world to substitute democracy for 
autocracy in human government, and to build up the structure of 
justice and liberty, of right and duty and service, from the bottom 
instead of accepting them from human superiors. No earthly power 
can reverse or stop that movement. It may appear to be delayed or 
hindered here and there, but it continually proceeds everywhere, 
nevertheless. No human power can put Russia back where she was 
but a few weeks ago. Whatever comes of good or ill, the old order 
cannot return. Russia must go on. She will go on, and the hopes and 
prayers of all Uberty-loving people of America will go with her. 

Let us rejoice that this terrible war, which the arrogant ambition 
of Prussian militarism has forced upon the world, has at last arrayed 
against the lingering autocracies of Germany, Austria, and Turkey 
the combined democracy of the world; that upon one side the spirit of 
the age maintains the principles of human liberty; that upon the 
other the spirit of the dark and cruel past strives for the continuance 
of absolutism. The issue is not doubtful. A little sooner or a little 



96 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

later it is inevitable. The Hohenzollerns and the Hapsburgs will fall, 
and the mighty and universal forces of democracy will prevail. 

Ah, if only the good people of Germany themselves might soon 
remember and breathe again the spirit of their earlier days — the 
spirit of '48, the spirit of the great philosophers and poets and leaders 
who inspired the patriots of that time with a passion for liberty! 

Sincerely yours, 

Elihtj Root. 

Letter to Augustus Thomas, Secretary of the Institute 
OF Arts and Letters, New York, April 17, 1917 

I am unfortunate in having to be away from New York on the 23d, 
so that I shall be unable to attend the meeting of the Institute that 
evening to join in greeting and congratulation to the writers and 
artists of Russia upon the great achievement to which they have con- 
tributed so signally. They were the voice of Russia during the long 
years in which the Russian people were denied opportunity for politi- 
cal expression. Through them were communicated the impulses of 
sympathy and hope which made their people one with all their 
fellows in other lands, who were pressing on the development of 
democratic self-government and the extirpation of autocrats and 
dynasties. To these men whose vision and lofty courage have 
inspired the literature and art of modern Russia remains the task — 
even more critical and exacting — of guiding wisely their new free 
government. The conduct of that government has been admirable 
in its wisdom and self-restraint. Yet, there will be trials. Turbulent 
and untrained spirits within, and sinister and corrupt intrigue from 
without, will encourage dissension and seek to destroy the new democ- 
racy by creating those divisions and controversies which paralyze 
power. Faint hearts will be discouraged, and even the wisest will be 
often in doubt; but the power of democracy will prevail. Russia will 
not divide or be led astray, because the unity and stability of a for- 
ward-moving purpose will be hers. She will not fight her battle with 
her own self alone. She is one of a great company of free peoples who 
are giving the lie all over the world to the false dogmas of autocracy, 
and are proving the capacity of humble men to rule themselves with 
self-control and justice and respect for law, and to maintain their 
freedom with the power of union and subordination of self. Russia 
will not swing idly in an eddy, but will move on with the world 
stream, impelled by that mighty and irresistible force which urges on 
the development of thought in our time to the destruction of all auto- 
cratic government and the creation of universal democracy. Happy 



MISSION TO RUSSIA 97 

must be our brothers, the writers and artists of Russia, to have lived 
to see the light of this wonderful day, and to grasp this opportunity 
for service. 

I am sure the Institute of Arts and Letters in sending to them mes- 
sages of cheer and hope will truly interpret the feeling of all America. 
With kinds regards, I am. 

Always faithfully yours, 

Elihu Root. 



ADDRESS TO THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS 
PETROGRAD, JUNE 15, 1917 

On June 15, 1917, the members of the Special Diplomatic Mission of the United 
States to the Provisional Government of Russia were presented to the president 
and members of the Provisional Council of Ministers at Petrograd, by the ambas- 
sador of the United States, the Honorable David R. Francis, who said: 

Thoroughly imbued with the spirit of service, these Americans have cheer- 
fully responded to the call of President Wilson, and are here to perform an 
important duty. I feel it a great honor to present this Special Diplomatic 
Mission of the United States to the Provisional Government of Russia. 

Permit me to introduce to the Council of Ministers the distinguished chair- 
man of the Mission, the Honorable Elihu Root, former Secretary of War, 
former Secretary of State, former Senator of the United States, always a true 
American. 
Mr. Root thereupon made the following address: 

THE Mission for which I have the honor to speak is 
charged by the Government and the people of the 
United States of America with a message to the Govern- 
ment and the people of Russia. 

The Mission comes from a democratic republic. Its mem- 
bers are commissioned and instructed by a president who 
holds his high office as chief executive of more than one 
hundred million free people, by virtue of a popular election 
in which more than eighteen million votes were freely cast 
and fairly counted, pursuant to law, by universal, equal, 
direct and secret suffrage. 

For one hundred and forty years our people have been 
struggling with the hard problems of self-government. With 
many shortcomings, many mistakes, many imperfections, 
we have still maintained order and respect for law, individual 
freedom, and national independence. 

Under the security of our own laws we have grown in 
strength and prosperity, but we value our freedom more than 

OS 



ADDRESS TO COUNCIL OF MINISTERS 99 

wealth. We love liberty, and we cherish above all our pos- 
sessions the ideals for which our fathers fought and suffered 
and sacrificed, that America might be free. We believe in 
the competence and power of democracy, and in our heart of 
hearts abides a faith in the coming of a better world, in which 
the humble and oppressed in all lands may be lifted up by 
freedom to a heritage of justice and equal opportunity. 

The news of Russia's new foimd freedom brought to 
America universal satisfaction and joy. From all the land, 
sympathy and hope went out towards the new sister in the 
circle of democracies; and this Mission is sent to express that 
feeling. The American democracy sends to the democracy 
of Russia, greeting, sympathy, friendship, brotherhood, and 
Godspeed. 

Distant America knows little of the special conditions of 
Russian life, which must give form to the government and to 
the laws which you are about to create. As we have devel- 
oped our institutions to serve the needs of our national char- 
acter and life, so we assume that you will develop your 
institutions to serve the needs of Russian character and life. 
As we look across the sea we distinguish no party and no 
class. We see great Russia as a whole; as one mighty striv- 
ing and aspiring democracy. We know the self-control, the 
essential kindliness, the strong common-sense, the courage 
and the noble idealism of Russian character. We have faith 
in you all. We pray for God's blessings upon you all. We 
believe that you will solve your problems; that you will 
maintain your liberty, and that our two great nations will 
march side by side in the triumphant progress of democracy 
until the old order has everywhere passed away and the world 
is free. 

One fearful danger threatens the hberty of both nations. 
The armed forces of military autocracy are at the gates of 
Russia and of her allies. The triumph of German arms will 



100 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

mean the death of liberty in Russia. No enemy is at the gates 
of America, but America has come to realize that the triumph 
of German arms means the death of liberty in the world; 
that we who love liberty and would keep it must fight for 
it, and fight now when the free democracies of the world 
may be strong in union, and not delay until they may be 
beaten down separately in succession. 

So America sends another message to Russia; that we are 
going to fight, and have already begun to fight, for your 
freedom equally with our own, and we ask you to fight for 
our freedom equally with yours. We would make your cause 
ours, and our cause yours, and with common purpose and the 
mutual helpfulness of firm alliance, make sure the victory 
over our common foe. 

You will recognize your own sentiments and purposes in 
the words of President Wilson to the American Congress, 
when, on the second of April last, he advised the declaration 
of war against Germany. He said: 

We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose because we know 
that in such a government [the German Government], following such 
methods, we can never have a friend; and that in the presence of its 
organized power, always lying in wait to accomplish we know not what 
purpose, there can be no assured security for the democratic governments 
of the world. We are now about to accept the gage of battle with this 
natm-al foe to liberty and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the 
nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its power. We are glad, 
now that we see the facts with no veil of false pretense about them, to 
fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its 
peoples, the German peoples included; for the rights of nations great and 
small and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and 
of obedience. The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace 
must be planted upon the tested foimdations of political liberty. We have 
no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no 
indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we 
shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of man- 
kind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as 
the faith and the freedom of nations can make them. 



ADDRESS TO COUNCIL OF MINISTERS 101 

And you will see the feeling toward Russia with which 
America has entered the great war in another clause of the 
same address. 

President Wilson further said: 

Does not every American feel that assurance has been added to our 
hope for the future peace of the world by the wonderful and heartening 
things that have been happening within the last few weeks in Russia ? 
Russia was known by those who knew it best to have been always in fact 
democratic at heart, in all the vital habits of her thought, in all the inti- 
mate relationships of her people that spoke their natural instinct, their 
habitual attitude towards life. The autocracy that crowned the summit 
of her political structure, long as it had stood and terrible as was the 
reality of its power, was not in fact Russian in origin, character, or pur- 
pose; and now it has been shaken off and the great generous Russian 
people have been added in all their naive majesty and might to the forces 
that are fighting for freedom in the world, for justice, and for peace. Here 
is a fit partner for a League of Honor. 

That partnership of honor in the great struggle for human 
freedom, the oldest of the great democracies now seeks in 
fraternal union with the youngest. 

The practical and specific methods and possibilities of our 
allied cooperation, the members of the Mission would be 
glad to discuss with the members of the Government of 
Russia. 

Reply of the Minister of Foreign Affairs 

Minister of Foreign Affairs Terestchenko replied to Mr. Root's address in 
English, as follows: 

It is a great honor to me to have the pleasure of receiving 
this Mission which is sent by the American people and 
their President to freed Russia and to express the feelings 
of deep sympathy which the Provisional Government, repre- 
senting the people of Russia, have toward your country. 

The event of the great revolution which we have achieved, 
makes allies of the oldest and the newest republics in the 



102 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

world. Our revolution was based on the same wonderful 
words which first were expressed in that memorable docu- 
ment in which the American people in 1776 declared their 
independence. 

Just as the American people then declared : 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, 
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, 
that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That 
to secure these rights. Governments are instituted among Men, deriving 
their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any 
Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of 
the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, lay- 
ing its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such 
form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happi- 
ness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established 
should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all 
experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while 
evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to 
which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpa- 
tions, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them 
imder absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off 
such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. 

So the Russian people, which for centuries have been enslaved 
by a government which was not that which the feeling of 
the nation wished or wanted, have so declared and shaken 
off the fetters which bound them, and as the wind blows 
away the leaves in autumn so the government which has 
bound us for centuries has fallen, and nothing is left but the 
free government of the people. 

So the Russian people now stand before the world con- 
scious of their strength and astonished at the ease with 
which that revolution happened, and the first days of our 
freedom indeed, brought surprise to us as well as to the rest 
of the world, but the day which brought the revolution was 
not only a day which brought freedom, for it brought us face 
to face with two enormous problems which now stand before 
the Russian people, and these problems are the creation of a 



ADDRESS TO COUNCIL OP MINISTERS 103 

strong democratic force in the interior of Russia, and a fight 
with the common foe without, with that foe which is fighting 
you as well as us, and which is now the last form and last 
strength of autocracy; and it was with a feeling of gladness 
that we found you on the side of the Allies, and that after our 
revolution there was no autocracy among those with whom 
we found ourselves fighting. We found with joy that in the 
high, lofty motives which have impelled your great republic 
to enter this conflict there is no strain of autocracy or spirit 
of conquest, and our free people shall be guided by those 
same high, lofty motives and principles. 

And now let us stand together, for we pursue the same 
endeavor in the war and in the peace which is to follow. We 
representatives of the Russian nation who have been placed 
at its head to lead the Russian nation through its hardships 
on its way to freedom, following these principles which have 
always brought a nation from complete slavery into complete 
freedom, are confident we shaU find the way which will lead 
us side by side, not only the Russian peoples but its allies, 
along that way which will bring us to future happiness. 

The revolution of Russia is a moral factor which shows the 
will of the Russian people in its endeavor to secure liberty 
and justice, and these elements the Russian people show and 
wish to show, not only in their internal affairs which we our- 
selves have to lead and in which we wish to be guided by 
these principles, but also in our international relations and in 
our international policies. 

This war, which was brought upon us three years ago and 
which the Russian revolution foimd when it entered the 
struggle of free nations, left but one door for us to enter, and 
by that door we have entered and we shall continue in that 
path. These Russian people strive to the end of militarism 
and to a durable peace which would exclude every violence 
from whatever side it may come and all imperialistic schemes. 



104 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

whatever their form may be. The Russian people have no 
wish of conquest or dominion and are opposed to those ideas 
in others, and first of all they will not allow any of those 
imperialistic desires which our enemy has formed, manifest 
or hidden, to come to good in whatever sphere he may have 
planned them, political, financial, or economic. This con- 
stitutes the firm will or what Russia has to guard herself 
against. 

There is also a second great thought which was expressed 
by that memorable document by which the nation of the 
United States and its people at the day of their independence 
declared their desires and wishes, and which says that nations 
should have a right to show themselves the way they wish 
to go and to decide their own future, and this high principle 
the Russian people have accepted and consider that it must 
guide their politics; and they consider also that all nations, 
however small or great, have the right to decide what their 
future will be, and that no territory and no people can be 
transferred from one country to another without their con- 
sent. Human beings have the right to say for themselves 
what they shall do and whose subjects they shall become. 

I am happy to see you, and happy to say that there is no 
idea or factor of a moral or material kind to divide us or to 
prevent us from being hand in hand across the Pacific. 
These two great people, the free people of Russia and the 
free people of America, the great people of the United States, 
the oldest, strongest, and purest democracy, hand in hand 
will show the way that human happiness will take in the 
future. 

Allow me, therefore, to greet you, to welcome you in the 
name of my colleagues and of our government which repre- 
sents our people and to say how happy we are to see you 
here. 



ADDRESS BEFORE THE RUSSIAN-AMERICAN 

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, PETROGRAD 

JUNE 21, 1917 

ON behalf of the Mission for which I have the honor to 
speak, and in behalf of our country on the other side of 
the world, I thank you sincerely and warmly for this hospi- 
table and sympathetic reception. It is very grateful to us to 
see upon this list of speakers the names of so many men dis- 
tinguished in the active life of great Russia. It is very 
encouraging to us to see represented here the Provisional 
Government of Russia and the oiEcers of those local govern- 
ments, for the merit and perfection of which the Russian 
people have so long been known throughout the world, and 
the representatives of those great branches of finance and pro- 
duction and associated industries without which no modern 
civilization can exist. 

The Mission has no function to discharge in respect 
to industrial or commercial life. That was intentionally 
excluded from the scope of its duty. We came to Russia to 
bring assurances of the spiritual brotherhood of the two great 
democracies, and we came, moreover, to learn how we could 
best do our part as allies of the Russian democracy by 
material as well as spiritual aid, in the great fight for the 
freedom of both our nations. But we did not wish that any 
element of advantage for America, any project for profit to 
America, any lower or more material motive should find its 
place in the message that we bring to Russia. Yet, when the 
war is over and the world is by victory made safe for democ- 
racy, then, of course, as between brothers who have fought 
together, mutual knowledge and confidence and friendship 
will lead to all those relations of industrial and commercial 



106 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

life which make up the peaceful activities of the civilized 
world. 

It was not easy, my friends, for America to make up its 
mind to enter the war. America is a peaceful people. We 
love peace and we hate war. Far away from the conflict 
across the ocean, it took us long to realize the true meaning 
of this great war in which you have been fighting, and it was 
not until we had slowly, step by step, reached the firm con- 
clusion that our hberty was in danger with the liberty of the 
rest of the world, that we nerved ourselves to enter the 
conflict. 

We came to see that Germany had foresworn and repudi- 
ated every principle of modern civilization. We came to see 
that all those rules for the conduct of war which for centuries 
civilized men have been formulating and agreeing upon to 
make war less terrible, every one of them was violated 
intentionally and systematically by Germany. We came to 
see that the principle of action of the military autocracy that 
rules Germany was based upon a repudiation of all moral 
obligations of states. We came to see that Germany had 
avowed that the faith of treaties was nothing to her unless it 
was to her interest to keep them. We came to see that the 
law of nations was as naught to Germany when it thwarted 
her purposes. We came to see, finally, that the miHtary 
power of Germany had brought back into the world the 
principles of action of those dark and dreadful days of a bar- 
barous past when there was no hberty in the world, and that 
if mankind was to be free it must put an end to this powerful 
and ruthless enemy of freedom. And so, cheered and encour- 
aged by the freedom of Russia, to be henceforth our ally and 
our friend, we entered the war, and we are going to fight until 
the world is made safe for democracy. For your democracy 
as well as ours. So that no arrogant, over-bearing, military 
caste shall push us off the sidewalk. 



ADDRESS BEFORE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 107 

We are new to war. We have a small army. We cannot 
move at the beginning very rapidly, but we have enrolled for 
military service ten million men, between the ages of twenty 
and thirty. We have first to train officers, and the few thou- 
sand officers of the regular army are now engaged in various 
camps over the country in training some forty thousand 
young men as officers. As soon as they are sufficiently 
trained we shall call, and have ordered the call of five hun- 
dred thousand men to be trained by those officers. Then we 
shall repeat the operation, training more officers and having 
them train more men, and go on so long as it is necessary to 
win this war. We are mobilizing all the industries of the 
country. Congress has by law put under the control of 
the President over 250,000 miles of American railroads. 
All the manufacturing establishments are put under the 
direction of the general government and required to manu- 
facture war materials, supplies, and munitions at no greater 
profit than is allowed by the government as being fair and 
reasonable. The entire food production of the country is 
put under the direction of a chief of food control, and that 
chief is the gentleman who has had charge of the Belgian 
relief work during the past three years, Herbert C. Hoover. 
We have set all the shipyards in the country at work 
to build ships by the thousand to take the place in the 
transport of supplies of those vessels which are destroyed 
by the German U-boats. In the meantime, we are sending 
a division to the lines in France and Belgium to fight there 
as an advance guard of American soldiers, by the side of 
the soldiers of Belgium, France, England, and Russia, who 
are fighting there. In the meantime, our ships of war are 
already in European waters engaged in the crusade against 
the U-boats which are destroying the peaceful vessels of 
commerce that are carrying supplies to Russia and Eng- 
land and France and Italy. 



108 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

We offer you no comradeship of ease, no grudging or 
stinted cooperation, but the assurance of action, action, 
action, until the time when the new democracy of Russia, 
crowned with the greatest achievement of history, may 
stand side by side with the old republic of the United States. 

Now indulge me while I say a word to my American 
friends here. It is not enough, my friends and brothers from 
America in Russia, it is not enough that our Government 
sends its message to Russia. It is not enough that the people 
of America look from the other side of the world with hope 
and courage to Russia. You Americans who are here in 
Russia represent your country. Your attitude towards the 
Russian democracy and your spirit will be interpreted as the 
spirit of democracy in America. Your fathers and mine did 
not win and maintain our liberty by pessimism. We won 
our liberty and we have maintained it for these centuries by 
confidence in the power of democracy, by faith in the 
people. We have maintained peace and order and liberty by 
respect for law and by holding up the hands of the Govern- 
ment. Whether it was an established and settled govern- 
ment, or a provisional government, or a revolutionary 
government, that government which represents at the time 
the will of the people for the maintenance of law and order 
and associated effort in behalf of liberty and justice, that 
government your fathers and mine have always maintained. 
Upon your Americanism, upon your loyalty to your own 
country, do it now, here. Carry no faint hearts about the 
streets of Petrograd. Teach these people in Russia, who are 
new to the government of democracy, that you, who are old 
to it, have faith in it and they will gain added faith and 
loyalty and support for their government from your faith; 
and so you will be in harmony with the people you have left 
at home, who believe in Russia and have hope and courage 
for Russia and pray for Russia. 



ADDRESS BEFORE THE SOCIAL ASSOCIATED 
COMMITTEES OF MOSCOW, JUNE 22, 1917 

THE Mission for which I speak was sent to Russia to 
express the sympathy of the United States, of the entire 
democracy of the Unit'^d States, for the Russian people in 
their new found freedom, and their struggle to create and 
maintain orderly self-government. It is not in prosperity and 
ease that one's sympathies go out to a friend, but in struggle, 
in conflict, when the hard tasks of life are to be accomplished. 
There is no phase or part of Russian life with which the 
people of America sympathize more deeply than they do with 
you in the work that you are now striving to accomplish. 
We can sympathize with it because we have been through it 
ourselves. We have made many mistakes, we still are imper- 
fect in our government, and we know how hard it is for a 
people to govern themselves in accordance with the laws of 
justice and humanity. And we have had more than one 
hundred and thirty years to accomplish our task, while you 
have had but three months. 

It is not, Mr. President, that we see in the happenings in 
Russia since we came cause for criticism, but we marvel at 
the self-control, the kindliness of spirit, and the sound com- 
mon sense that the Russian people have displayed. Believe 
me, we feel that in the work that you are doing in these 
committees you are on the right path towards an assured 
and permanent democracy. For popular self-government 
must come not from above; not by fine theories; not by 
formulas, but it must come from the willing participation of 
all the people who govern themselves. That independence 
of individual character which is cultivated and developed by 



110 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

individual effort for the public good is the solid foundation 
for free government. It is the hope and prayer of the Ameri- 
can people that you may have full scope and opportunity to 
develop yourselves, your free government, in accordance 
with the needs of your character and your life in Russia. It 
is a cause of joy to the democratic people of the United 
States if they can help to give to the Russian people the 
opportunity to work out their own system of government in 
accordance with the genius of Russian character. It is a 
cause of joy to us if we can help to keep the new Russian 
democracy from being prevented, by the terrible military 
power of Germany, from establishing and developing their 
own free government. We have learned in free America 
that the system of government, the principles, the motives, 
and the methods of German military autocracy will be fatal 
to our hberty and fatal to yours; and we rejoice that we can 
help to save both great democracies from that frightful 
danger. The government of Germany, the social system of 
Germany, the socialism of Germany, are aU militaristic in 
their essential nature. They shall not find control in free 
America, and if we can help you to prevent their finding 
control in free Russia, we shall be happy in feeling that we 
have done something towards perpetuating the ideals of our 
fathers who fought and sacrificed to make us free. 

I thank you for Hstening so kindly to me and for permitting 
me to come before you to speak. I will close by saying that 
the people of America are all a working people; they work 
hard, early and late; they love liberty and they work for it; 
and their hearts go out to you who are working for the liberty 
and honor of your country, because they recognize you as 
brothers in a common cause. Long live Free Russia and 
Free America ! 



ADDRESS BEFORE THE MOSCOW DUMA, 
JUNE 22, 1917 

I THANK you heartily in the name of the Mission from 
America for your hospitable and flattering reception. I 
thank you for your kind references to the President of the 
United States and to that free democracy of America which 
we represent to the democracy of Russia. You say, Mr. 
Mayor, that Russia is ill and infirm. I have heard from 
many lips since reaching Russia expressions of anxiety and 
despondency for the fate of the new democracy, but I refuse 
to believe them. Russia is not infirm; Russia is young in 
her democracy, and with sincerity of purpose is groping to 
find the right way, that she may do the right thing. 

We in the United States of America have faith in Russia, 
and as the representatives of our country, we carry with us 
that faith in Russia firm and unchanged. Let me tell you 
why we have faith in you. First; because we know that you 
have practiced the art of local self-government, through such 
institutions as this Duma, with success and fidelity to justice 
and with distinguished honor to your country. That is the 
true basis of national self-government; practice in local self- 
government. And so, although you have been deprived of 
the opportunity for national seK-government, deprived of the 
opportunity to apply your ideas of democratic free seK- 
government in the nation as a whole, nevertheless you will 
find the way to expand your experience in local seK-govern- 
ment until it is adapted to the great task of guiding and 
governing the entire nation. You who have respected your 
own customs and local laws, and by the force of your local 
public opinion have enforced them, will establish national 

111 



112 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

laws, and by the union of all the cities and sections of Russia 
in a universal public opinion, you will give respect to the law 
of the nation and will enforce it. That is the true method 
of self-government; not to receive it from above by consti- 
tutions, however skillfully prepared; by theories, however 
brilliant; but to build it up from below by individual self- 
government; by habits of respect for law, and by a healthy 
public opinion. 

The second reason why we have confidence in your success 
is that we know the kindly heart of the Russian people, the 
common sense of the Russian people, the innate respect 
for the rights of others that dwells in the Russian people. 
The members of our Mission, sir, have frequently spoken to 
each other of the marvelous spectacle we have witnessed 
since we landed upon the shores of Russia several weeks ago, 
of this vast people practically without any enforcement of 
law, practically without policemen to compel observance 
of the rights of others, yet in the main, with few exceptions, 
remaining peaceable, orderly, respecting each other's rights, 
considerate of each other's feelings and interests, and waiting 
only for the construction of a government under which their 
extraordinary qualities of self-control can make a firm and 
perpetual structure of law and order. You will make mis- 
takes; you will have to retrace your steps here and there; 
you will find imperfections, but you will step by step go on 
to develop a structure of competent and successful free 
self-government. I speak with confidence because I know 
how many mistakes we have made in America during the one 
hundred and forty years through which we have been 
developing our free self-government; and to us who know 
how hard the task is, how many mistakes we have made, it 
is not a wonder that you have not made greater progress in 
the three months of your freedom, but it is a wonder that 
you have done so well. 



ADDRESS BEFORE THE MOSCOW DUMA 113 

A third reason why we have faith in you is because we 
know the capacity of the Russian character for self-sacrifice 
for an ideal. Many Russians have given up their lives in 
years past; many Russians have lingered in prison; many 
Russians have suffered hardship, in order that Russia might 
sometime be free; and we know it cannot be possible that 
Russians now are unwilling to make further sacrifices that 
Russia may remain free. We know that Russia cannot fail to 
value the prize that has been won at so high a price of suffer- 
ing and of death. We know you must love liberty. We know 
that Russia cannot be materialistic, wedded to ease and com- 
fort, indifferent to the higher good of her people, indifferent 
to the ideals of liberty which are to make over the world 
and lift up the poor and the oppressed who labor and suffer 
in many lands, to a heritage of opportunity and freedom. 
We know you cannot fail to love liberty when it has been 
bought at such a price as Russians have paid for it. We 
know that hundreds of thousands of Russians have given 
up their lives fighting for the Czar, and we do not for a 
moment believe that Russians now will not be willing to 
risk their lives fighting for Russia and Russia's freedom. 
That is the test of a people's power to maintain liberty; 
that they are willing to make sacrifices for liberty. No 
people can have liberty without paying the price. There is 
an old saying, " eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." 
More than that, it is an eternal truth that constant struggle 
is the price of liberty. And we are sure that Russia will not 
give over the struggle until her liberty is secure. We know 
that in the Russian heart there are cherished ideals that 
are far above the material, gross, daily needs of life. We 
know that Russia, free, with high ideals, with courage un- 
surpassed, jealous of her liberty, will never begin the career 
of the new democracy by being false to the ideals of liberty 
in the world. 



114 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

There is another and broader reason for our faith. It is a 
reason that has grown with our people in America from the 
days of their early struggles against cold, hunger, and 
savage foes; through all the trials by which they have won 
and maintained their freedom; it is that we have faith in the 
triumph and perpetuity of Russian freedom, because we have 
an abiding faith in the power of democracy. You are not 
alone. You do not walk alone upon the pathway of self- 
government. One of those great movements of the human 
mind that no man can control or measure is taking place 
throughout the whole world. The conception of government 
solely by command of a superior power is fading from the 
minds of men throughout the world; and the new conception 
of government by the will of the governed, imposing the 
limitations of justice and right conduct upon themselves, is 
taking its place the world over. Yesterday was the day of 
emperors and kings; today is the day of the plain and 
humble man who works and endures. The progress of that 
majestic movement of mankind, that great development of 
civilization, cannot be turned back. It may be retarded 
here and there; it may be held for the moment by an obstacle 
here and an obstacle there; but that irresistible progress of 
mankind cannot be turned back in Russia, in America, any- 
where on earth. It must and will proceed to work out its 
final fruition. No man can measure the time or the place 
where that fruition shall be reached. You are not alone; 
your history in Russia during the last two months is but one 
chapter in the great history of the advance of the human race 
along the pathway to this higher civilization which comes 
with freedom and universal opportunity and enlightenment. 

The one obstacle that holds that progress for the moment, 
and only for the moment, is the sinister power of the mili- 
tary autocracy of Germany. That power which repudi- 
ates the faiths of treaties; that power which avows its 



ADDRESS BEFORE THE MOSCOW DUMA 115 

purpose to violate the laws of nations whenever it finds it 
to its interest to do so; that power which has erected among 
the peaceable people of the earth a vast military machine 
against which no unorganized peaceable people can stand; 
that power which avows that no moral laws control the 
state, but that the morality which you and I acknowledge as 
obligatory upon us in our relations to each other, has no con- 
trol of the state, and that the supposed interest of the state 
is superior to all moral law; that power which has revived 
amid the civilization of the twentieth century all the worst 
of a dreadful, barbaric past and has enthroned and is endeav- 
oring to enforce upon the world principles of conduct which, 
in cynical disregard of humanity and law and faith and moral- 
ity, which in brutality and selfishness, have not been seen 
in this world since the fall of the Roman Empire. That 
power stands now as the one bulwark of the dark powers 
of the past against the triumphant advance of the light of a 
better day for mankind. No peaceful democracy can live 
beside it. America feels in its heart that it cannot live in its 
peaceful security by the side of the German military autoc- 
racy, and be safe. America feels that the new freedom of 
Russia cannot live as a neighbor to the military autocracy 
of Germany, because there is no middle ground between 
defense by military power, and subjection. Our faith in your 
working out a system of free self-government, adapted to the 
conditions and the character and the genius of the Russian 
people, is marred by but one doubt; and that is the doubt 
whether you will be able to protect the right to develop your 
own free government against the malign and sinister control 
of German autocracy. And it is because we know that your 
yoimg liberty cannot live beside German power, and our own 
liberty cannot live beside German power, and freedom all 
over the world cannot live beside German power, that we 
have come to say to you that we have entered this war in the 



116 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

service of freedom for you as well as for ourselves; to fight 
with you; to give our blood and treasure with you for the 
perpetuation of liberty in the world, Russian and American. 
We will stay with you to the end in that conflict, certain of its 
triumphant success; and we will stand with you, our old flag 
with its stars and stripes floating beside your new flag of 
Russian freedom, in the triumph of liberty over autocracy. 
Until that time comes, our labors, our blood, our treasure, 
our brotherly affection and our prayers are with you in your 
work. 



ADDRESS BEFORE THE WAR INDUSTRIES 
COMMITTEE AT MOSCOW, JUNE 23, 1917 

IT is a great pleasure for me and for my associates in 
the Mission to be received by this Committee, because we 
have learned in America to appreciate very highly the ex- 
traordinary work that you have already done in your country. 
I do not think that we have fully appreciated, however, 
the difficulties under which you have labored. A study 
of the conditions in Russia since our arrival reveals those 
difficulties to be far greater than we had supposed. That 
increases our admiration for the courage, the persistency, 
and the public spirit with which you have carried on the 
great work of the last three years. I observe with some dis- 
tress that there are influences operating now, attempting to 
influence the industrial conditions in Russia, which would 
tend to destroy the success of your future efforts. Of course, 
if the revolution is now to proceed to the destruction of 
all industrial enterprise, that must end your work, and 
there are plainly some malign influences which desire to 
accomplish that result. I have, however, the greatest con- 
fidence in the sincerity of purpose and the strong deter- 
mination of the Provisional Government at Petrograd to 
combat and counteract these influences and to maintain the 
industrial system of the country. It is so plainly indicated 
by the conditions that the way to maintain industrial effi- 
ciency and continue the work of your committee is to stand 
by and support the authority of the Provisional Govern- 
ment, that I cannot doubt that such support will be freely 
and continuously given. A very cheering incident — more 
than an incident — a step in the progress of the revolution, is 



118 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

the action recently taken in Petrograd by the General Council 
of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates. I refer to the resolu- 
tion of that General Council of representatives from all 
Russia, welcoming the association and cooperation of capi- 
tal and labor, of industrial enterprise and the proletariat. It 
may well be treated as the basis for the future development 
of your constitutional government. That resolution of that 
Council contrasts so sharply with the incitement of the 
sinister influences that are attempting to destroy the indus- 
trial life of Russia, that it may well be accepted as the authori- 
tative declaration of the people of Russia, so far as they have 
yet been able to secure a representative assembly, in favor of 
the preservation of industrial life and enterprise. 

Let me say a word about our work in America along your 
lines. Of course, we are quite new to war in America. We 
have had only little wars, and the idea of a whole nation 
mobilizing its industries for the support of a great army is 
quite new to us; but the people of the country are so thor- 
oughly convinced that it is necessary for them to defend 
their liberty, that they cannot remain free and indepen- 
dent in the same world with a predominant militaristic 
autocracy such as exists in Germany, that they are gladly 
yielding themselves to the constraint and sacrifices of the 
new system. We have had a little army. It had been sup- 
plied by ordinary purchases in the market, and by very 
few and small government manufacturing establishments. 
But now we have enrolled for military service ten million 
men between the ages of twenty and thirty. We have the 
few oflScers of our regular army now engaged in training some 
forty or fifty thousand men for new officers for commissions 
in the larger army. We have ordered a corps of five hundred 
thousand men from those enrolled to come out just as soon as 
these forty to fifty thousand officers now being trained will 
be ready to train the men. In the meantime, we shall go on 



ADDRESS TO THE INDUSTRIES BOARD 119 

training another set of officers to train another set of men, 
and we shall continue that as long as it is necessary. In the 
meantime we are sending an advance division to the line in 
France and Belgium, and our men-of-war are now in 
European waters chasing U-boats. 

Behind this provision we are mobilizing the industries of 
the country. All the railroads — I think over 250,000 miles 
— are put under the direction of the Government, — the 
first time in our history that this has ever been done. All 
the manufacturing establishments, makers of munitions and 
supplies of all kinds, and of the raw materials from which 
munitions and supplies are made, are put under the direc- 
tion of the Government, and the Government is authorized 
to require them to produce the necessary supplies at prices 
which shall not yield any profit in excess of the profit fixed by 
the President as fair and reasonable. The food produc- 
tion and distribution are put under the direction of a new 
department of food production and supply, and for the 
direction of that we are utilizing the services of Mr. Hoover, 
who was at the head of the Belgian Relief. In the meantime 
also, the Government is putting itself directly behind and in 
support of the work of the Red Cross, which has hitherto 
been supported solely by voluntary contributions. Very 
great increases are being made in the contributions for the 
support of the Young Men's Christian Association work, 
which has been so extensive on the French line and on the 
British line in France and Belgiiun, and until the break with 
us, also on the Austrian line, and it has also begun on the 
Italian line. So that the services of that organization for the 
entertainment, the comfort and the instruction of the soldiers 
in their camps and immediately behind their trenches, may 
go forward on a larger scale than ever before. 

Our friends in England and France and Italy have been 
very kind to us in sending over in various commissions. 



120 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

gentlemen who have had great experience in war industries 
in their own countries ; and we hope to profit by the mistakes 
which they tell us they have made and which I am told you 
have made; and profiting by these warnings, we are going 
to try not to withdraw from the industries of the country, 
for the purpose of the fighting-line, the men who are neces- 
sary to carry on the industries. So we are going to do our 
best and we are going to keep on doing it. I am happy to 
say that in the industrial situation in America, American 
labor is satisfied with the conditions, and its opportunity 
under the protection of law to develop its increasing pros- 
perity by evolution. No part of our people have been more 
cheerful, loyal, and earnest in giving support to this whole 
system both of raising and maintaining an army and of 
industrial mobilization for its support, than the laboring men. 
We have the eight-hour law under national statutes, but the 
labor people of America cheerfully and with alacrity have 
assented to putting into the President's hands the right to 
suspend the operation of that eight-hour law and to call for 
labor during much longer hours and under more severe con- 
ditions, because of the immense public necessity of pressing 
forward the work in every direction. 

Mr. Duncan, one of our Mission, who is one of the vice- 
presidents of the American Federation of Labor, assents 
very heartily to the statement I have just made about the 
attitude of our laboring people. I wish that the laboring 
men in Russia might become fully acquainted with the way 
in which the laboring people in the United States, after long 
experience in maintaining their own rights, look at their 
relations to the Government and the need of the country at 
this time. 

Now I have talked to you too much about ourselves, but it 
is sometimes encouraging when one is at work very hard and 
very earnestly, to feel that there are others in sympathy. 



ADDRESS TO THE INDUSTRIES BOARD 121 

engaged in similar work and pressing forward in the same 
direction. I have said so much, in order that you may feel 
that you have not merely the sympathy of rhetoric, but the 
sympathy of workers in the same cause. I want to have 
you feel that you are not alone, but that in America the good 
men, the loyal men, the men who really desire better things 
for their country, who wish that their people shall be free, 
are earnestly doing the same kind of work that you are 
doing for Russia. You have our most earnest sympathy for 
the future of your great undertakings. 

[There followed several addresses in Russian and in French, 
after which Mr. Root said] : 

Let me say a word regarding your references to the supply 
of locomotives and cars. The first thing this Mission did 
after its appointment and before leaving Washington, was to 
recommend to our Government that it put itself behind the 
order which the Russian Government was then ready to 
place, for 500 locomotives and 10,000 freight cars, and that 
was done, the Government making a credit of $100,000,000 
and arranging with the manufacturers to expedite the filling 
of that order. There were already prior orders for 375 loco- 
motives and about 10,000 freight cars, which are now in pro- 
cess of being filled. I suppose the first installment has been 
delivered by this time; if not, it is no doubt upon the ocean, 
and the manufacturers are ready to go on with deliveries 
imder the old order. 

The new order, which was made just before we left, for 500 
locomotives and 10,000 cars, will come on right after those 
deliveries. It is the view of this Mission that that process 
should be continued, our Government making credits and 
expediting manufacture for still further orders; but the 
limit of the possibihty of supply is not money, not capacity 
for production; it is shipping. The supply of locomotives 
is going on now and will continue to go on to the full extent 



122 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

of the possibility of shipment across the ocean. We have 
begun to build ships in order to take the place of those 
destroyed by the submarine warfare. It takes time, as you 
know, to enlarge greatly manufacture in any industry, but 
we hope before very long to make very material additions to 
the shipping of the world, so that we expect to increase the 
supply of rolling stock for your railroads. 

I will add also that investigation has shown both to the 
American experts who were invited here and to their Rus- 
sian associates, in recent inquiries into railroad adminis- 
tration, that very great increase in efficiency of transportation 
can be brought about by some changes in organization. You 
can come very near doubling the efficiency of the rolling 
stock you have in this country now, and I hope that will 
be accomplished. 

Of course, when any industry, whether it be transportation, 
or manufacture or distribution, is organized for one set of 
conditions and then new and more onerous conditions must 
be dealt with, you have got to change your organization to 
meet the new conditions. 



ADDRESS BEFORE THE ZEMSTVO UNION, AT 
MOSCOW, JUNE 23, 1917 

I THANK you very much for permitting the Mission from 
America, for which I have the honor to speak, to visit you 
and to look into your faces, and to listen to the account 
of the great work in which you are engaged. We feel that 
here there is something more than oratory; there is service, 
and that is the real thing. Your work has not been unknown 
to us in America. One of the chief grounds for confidence in 
the newly formed revolutionary government was the presence 
at its head of Prince Lvoff , who so long and so ably directed 
the affairs of your union. We feel that you are not merely 
engaged in the necessary work of supplying the Russian 
army, but that you are exhibiting to the world the highest 
evidence that Russia is a living force, worthy of freedom. For 
in these two respects you show that you are building up self- 
government upon solid foundations. Liberty is a natural 
right to which all men may aspire, but self-government is an 
art which must be acquired. Liberty without the capacity 
for self-government is a fatal gift. Now, you base your work 
upon individual enterprise and local association organized 
and united for a natural purpose. This is the way that self- 
government is built up so that it can endure. This is the way 
in which the seK-government which preserves and maintains 
our hberty and justice in America was built up. 

People wonder how the old bureaucracy was cast off so 
easily and suddenly. I think I begin to see that it was because 
underneath that cover which sought to repress the Russian 
people, the Russian people were growing in capacity for free- 
dom. It is your work which is the true avenue and method 



124 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

of the growth of the people. The other respect in which I say 
that your work is of the highest importance, and is the highest 
evidence of the fitness of Russia for freedom, is that without 
arguing or reasoning about it, you are illustrating the true 
principle necessary for the maintenance of freedom; and 
that principle is the principle of service. One always loves 
another for whom he has to care. If a people are to love 
their country and be willing to maintain its freedom, they 
must serve their country. The principle of free self-govern- 
ment is the principle not what I can get out of the coun- 
try, but what can I give to the country. The bureaucratic 
government which you have cast aside, was composed largely 
of men who only thought of what they could get out of the 
country. You have brought into the life of Russia a great 
service, people who are seeking to know what they can 
give to their country. And so I have abiding faith that the 
government which is being built upon such foundations, will 
accord with the character, the life and the genius of the Rus- 
sian people. I believe that you have not only been serving 
your soldiers at the front, but you have been laying founda- 
tions for your liberty — the liberty of the Russian people; the 
foundations upon which will be built the great structure of 
Russian liberty in the future, — that structure which will 
stand for many centuries to come. 

And so, we all feel honored and proud to meet you and to 
hail you as friends in the great work of liberty and justice 
the world over. If America can help you in your work tell 
us what to do and we shall be glad to do it; for while peoples 
are many, separated by oceans and continents, liberty is one, 
the laws of justice and humanity are one code the world over; 
and for the maintenance of these laws we should all struggle 
together, as brothers and sisters of humanity. 



ADDRESS AT THE MOSCOW PEOPLE'S BANK, 
MOSCOW, JUNE 23, 1917 

I THANK you very much in behalf of the whole Mission 
from the United States for your very kind and hospitable 
welcome. This institution has been the object of very great 
interest in the United States. We have long felt that our 
banking system was defective. We had banks which were 
adapted to commercial uses, affording opportunities for 
the commercial and manufacturing people, and we had a 
great system of very strong and well conducted savings 
banks for the deposit of the savings of people of small means; 
but we had no agency through which the ordinary agricul- 
tural industry of the country could be accommodated. We 
have for a number of years felt that the proper development 
of our agriculture was limited by the absence of some such 
institution. Accordingly we have studied your work and 
your institution, and we are full of admiration for it and for 
the Russian people who have been able to organize it and to 
maintain it. We hope to learn from it, we are learning much 
from it in the effort we are now making to establish agricul- 
tural loan banks throughout our country for the benefit of 
the agricultural producers of the country. It is a very great 
pleasure and honor for us to be received by you and to listen 
to these explanations of your institution, and we thank you 
sincerely. 

We join with you in the determination that the national 
system of development, of finance and industry, of the modes 
by which the people may develop their own prosperity, shall 
not be taken away by Germany, either by force or by fraud. 
We feel with you that, unless resisted, the imposition of the 

125 



126 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

German control upon our country would result in having 
what may be a very efficient system but still German and 
not ours; and we feel sure that the result of such domination 
would be that we should become a subject nation to the 
German power, and we do not mean that that shall ever 
happen ! 



ADDRESS AT THE MEETING OF THE BOURSE 
OF MOSCOW, JUNE 23, 1917 

THE Mission from the United States, for which I speak, 
appreciates very highly the hospitahtyand the friendship 
with which you have received us here; and we thank you 
for being so good as to come together for the purpose of 
meeting us. 

This Mission has no concern with commerce or industry or 
profit. The instincts of the American democracy were that 
the vital point upon which all commerce, all industry, all 
profit in the future, and liberty itself depends, is the preven- 
tion of the domination of the military autocracy of Germany 
in the free and of necessity less completely organized democ- 
racies of the world. The function of this Mission was inten- 
tionally limited especially to alliance and cooperation in the 
conduct of the war against Germany. We wished that no 
one should be able to say or to think that this Mission had 
come here to secure advantage or profit for America in trade 
or in industry. To our minds the domination of Germany 
is like a gas attack. When that poison gas rolls over the 
country nobody can breathe except a German, and we pro- 
pose to join hands — to join hands with Russia — to destroy 
the machine that makes the gas. When that is done, when 
Russia has an opportunity freely to develop her system of 
government in accordance with the customs and genius 
of the Russian people, then will be laid the foundation for 
enterprise and industry, for great undertakings in the devel- 
opment of your vast natural wealth, and for the free inter- 
course of trade between you and the rest of the world, in 
which, we all hope, mutual friendship and labor together in a 

127 



128 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

common cause will include the people of the United States of 
America. 

You are now experiencing the feeling of uncertainty. 
Certainty after all, is at the basis of your occupation. It is 
at the basis of all trade; at the basis of all financial develop- 
ment; at the basis of all successful enterprise. Certainty; 
certainty of protection by government and certainty of pro- 
tection against government. Various of the older countries 
have had various ways of securing that certainty. By cer- 
tainty, I mean that when money is invested in an enterprise, 
in a mine, in a farm, or in a manufactory, the people who are 
concerned in it, or who are invited to purchase an interest in 
it, may know that there is a government that will protect 
them in the exercise of the right to conduct that enterprise; 
and will not take it away as soon as it becomes profitable. 
Upon that the prosperity of every bourse in the world, 
and the prosperity of all enterprise for the development 
of all the wealth of all the countries in the world, 
depends; upon that security all these things must rest. In 
some old countries the natural conservatism of the people 
furnishes the security; that is so in England; it is so in 
France, and I judge that to some extent it is so in Russia. 
I say to some extent, because you are so new to free govern- 
ment here, and there appear to be conflicting ideas in some 
quarters. In the United States, being a new country, and 
not having long-established customs of many centuries to 
furnish this security, we undertook to create it by putting 
into our written Constitution certain rules of conduct which 
were binding upon the Government; that no man shall be 
deprived of his life, or liberty, or property except by due 
process of law; that private property shall not be taken for 
public use without compensation; that no law shall be 
passed impairing the obligation of contracts, and other 
similar rules; and by this Constitution we limit the powers 
of all oflBcers of government, so that they have no oflicial 



ADDRESS AT MEETING OF THE BOURSE 129 

power to violate any of these rules. If any public officer 
undertakes to take away my property, or to prevent my just 
use of it, he is a trespasser, and I can prosecute him by law 
and make him pay damages or punish him for violation of 
my rights, and he is not protected by his official character. 
No public officer, no president or governor, or executive 
officer of any kind, no congress or legislature, or state 
or local body can overrule the judgments of the courts 
protecting all citizens in the possession of their private 
property and the exercise of their rights to use it. Accord- 
ingly, when the securities of any enterprise are offered 
for sale, in the American stock exchange, everybody knows 
that if he buys them he will get an interest in the property 
that cannot be taken away from him. The property may be 
good or bad, the enterprise may succeed or fail; the purchaser 
takes those chances, but one chance he does not have to take; 
he runs no risk of the property being taken away from the 
corporation or association that proposes to carry it on, and 
no risk that that association will be prevented from working 
out the enterprise and securing its fruits. 

We shall look with the greatest interest to the work of 
your coming Constituent Convention to see how far you find 
it desirable, or find yourselves able to include guarantees and 
safeguards, against destroying the fundamental basis of enter- 
prise, upon which your prosperity and the development of 
the wealth of Russia must depend. And to that effort, and 
to all your efforts for the establishment of a new and ade- 
quate political system, and for placing your industrial, and 
commercial system upon a sound and broader and more 
secure foundation, for ensuring the political, industrial, and 
economic freedom of Russia, and for keeping out from con- 
trol over your lives, the domination, either military or politi- 
cal or financial, of the brutal and arrogant power of Germany, 
the sympathy and good wishes and hearty cooperation of the 
people of the United States will ever be extended. 



ADDRESS AT A LUNCHEON GIVEN BY GENERAL 
BRUSILOFF AT GENERAL STAFF HEAD- 
QUARTERS, "STAFKA," JUNE 27, 1917 

On June 27, 1917, the Russian general, Alexis Brusiloff, gave a limcheon at 
general staflf headquarters, in Mogileve, in honor of the American Diplomatic 
Mission. After the luncheon. General Brusiloff welcomed the Mission in the 
following address: 

Mr. Ambassador, I am glad that I have the honor to welcome you as 
representative of our new great ally. 

Russia and America, — these are two worlds divided by oceans; but it is 
my wish that you who have conquered distances and have come as our dear and 
welcome guests shall gain the impression that your beautiful coimtry is not 
distant, but close to Russia. Here, as across the ocean, you will find the same 
banner bearing the same great device, — liberty, civil, social, political, and 
national. America, which has long ago acquired the former, has now declared 
herself for the latter; as, without the independence and liberty of nations, all 
others are mere visions. Having just passed through changes such as history 
has seldom known, we are now deeply satisfied, feeling that our glorious allies 
are strengthened by a new and powerful support — the great transatlantic 
republic. Continuing the war with all the powers at our disposal, we shall 
fight not only for oiu- own cause, fortifying the liberty we have recently acquired, 
but at the same time — hand in hand with you — we shall fight for the right of 
aU nations to shape their destinies in accordance with their own desires. 

With deep faith in oiu" common and just cause, allow me, in the name of the 
Russian army, to welcome our great democratic ally and its glorious army, and 
also you gentlemen whom we are glad to welcome to our fraternal military 
circle. 

Response of Mr. Root 

THANK you sincerely for your courteous and friendly 
greeting and for the kind things you have said about 
my country. It is most encouraging for America, which 
has entered the great war to be the friend and ally of 
the new democracy of Russia, to know that in the war- 
fare in our common cause against the hateful autocracy 
of Germany, we will still have the advantage of your mili- 
tary genius, which the world esteems so well; and will still 



ADDRESS AT " STAFKA " 131 

have the benefit of that bulwark of Hberty which the daunt- 
less courage and fortitude of the soldiers of Russia are able 
to maintain against the aggressions of military autocracy. 

We are peaceful people in America, but we have learned 
that we cannot continue a free people unless we prevent the 
supremacy of autocratic German power in the world. We 
have no hatred towards Germany, but we will not be sub- 
jugated by her, nor ruled by her. We have learned that her 
professions of friendship are false. For a long time, when we 
objected to Germany's murder of our innocent people, men 
and women and children, upon the high seas through her 
submarine warfare, Germany put us off with friendly words, 
and specious promises, and professions of desire to observe 
our interests. At last we learned by her own confession that 
she was but keeping us quiet in order that she might have 
time to build more submarine boats to murder our citizens 
more readily; just as Germany sends her troops to frater- 
nize with the kindly Russians upon your front, and while 
protesting friendship there, she is at the same time murder- 
ing the Russian soldiers in German prison camps by cruel 
and inhuman treatment. 

We are glad that you know the truth regarding this foe of 
liberty and honor; we are glad that you know that no faith 
and no morality and no humanity is to be found in the class 
that rules Germany; we are glad that you have learned, as 
we have learned, that if we are to maintain our liberty in 
Russia and in America, we must be able to make sacrifices 
for it, to fight for it, and if need be to die for it, in order that 
our beloved countries may live in freedom and not be sub- 
jected to a foreign power. And as brothers in that cause, the 
greatest that the world has ever seen; in behalf of the whole 
people of the United States, I give you the toast: To the 
indomitable Russian Army and to its heroic Commander-in- 
Chief, to whom be honor and success and glory to the end ! 



ADDRESS AT A LUNCHEON GIVEN BY THE 

MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

PETROGRAD, JULY 4, 1917 

I AM sure I speak not only for myself and the other mem- 
bers of the Diplomatic Mission from the United States, 
but also for the ambassador of the United States to Russia 
and these gentlemen who have come as an advisory commis- 
sion to endeavor to help in the transportation problems of 
Russia — I speak for them all in returning most hearty thanks 
both for the expressions which have been used today and for 
the substantial and real feeling we have found behind the 
expression. We have met in Russia everywhere the most 
kindly and hospitable reception. We have been met with the 
utmost frankness and sincerity and helpfulness. Every- 
where in the government and among the many citizens of 
Russia with whom we have been brought into contact this 
has been true. We are deeply grateful for all that you have 
done for us, and for the spirit you have exhibited; and we shall 
go back to the United States to carry a report of all possible 
evidence of real friendship, real cooperation, real union, in a 
common spirit, between the two great democracies. 

As we of the Diplomatic Mission are about to depart from 
Russia upon the coming Monday, I wish to say that we leave 
Russia with cheerful hope and confidence for the successful 
accomphshment of the great task which the people of Russia 
have undertaken. We leave with renewed faith in your com- 
petency, in all branches of your government and in all sec- 
tions and grades of your people, to do the great work which 
you undertook when you dethroned your czar. And we base 
our confidence on substantial grounds — not upon patriotic 
words, not upon the expression of theories; not upon noble 



PRINCIPLES OF DEMOCRACY 133 

sentiments alone, but upon what we find in the character of 
the Russian people — upon the real and extraordinary prog- 
ress which the Russian people have made in organization 
under the most unfavorable circumstances — the organiza- 
tion of local self-government followed by the organization of 
local governments into great unions, with national scope and 
purpose, which have been so efiicient in making possible a 
strong support of the Russian armies in the field during the 
war. And it is a knowledge of that great work which makes 
the presence of Prince Lvoff as president of the Provisional 
Government a source of satisfaction, and of confidence for 
the future. 

We base our opinion also upon the evidences of capacity 
for individual enterprise which we have found in Russia — 
the capacity to inaugurate and carry on great enterprises by 
private initiative and independently of the government; and 
we base it still further upon the self-control, the essential 
kindliness, the tendency toward order and peaceful relations 
among the men in all Russian communities. These are the 
qualities which are the most essential for free government. 
All of those qualities which have wrecked attempts at self- 
government in the past because passion became supreme, 
seem to be absent from Russian character, and those quali- 
ties which have made permanent self-government by the 
people, seem to be in a high degree developed in Russian 
character. So we have faith in you. We shall go back and 
carry a message of confidence in the future of Russia and a 
message of cheer to our country, because we have no idea of 
a fleeting friendship, but a certainty of a permanent and per- 
sistent and effective ally in Russia, in the great war upon 
which we have so recently entered. 

You so very kindly referred to the day which the people of 
the United States all celebrate. That day was marked by 
the American Declaration of Independence which framed the 



134 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

issue in what was really civil war between two groups of the 
people of Great Britain. With many adherents upon both 
sides in the American colonies and in England, that war 
completely established not merely for the American colonies 
but for Great Britain, upon a broader and surer foundation, 
the principles of English freedom; and Sir George Buchanan 
and I look with kindly eyes at one another across this 
table, enjoying the inheritance of that same great principle of 
individual freedom which triumphed in what we know as the 
American Revolution. That principle is at stake again in 
the world today. Because it is at stake again, the grand- 
children and great grandchildren of those who fought in the 
American Revolution are joining hands with each other for a 
new struggle to enthrone the principle of individual liberty 
and to cast down the principle of the divine right of one 
man to keep a people in servitude. The two principles can- 
not live together. The Declaration of Independence which 
marks this day sets up the principle of freedom in these 
words: 

That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator 
with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and 
the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are 
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the 
governed. 

That is the principle of democracy. That is opposed to the 
existence of a divine right to govern others. Governments 
are instituted to secure the unalienable rights of all men and 
of every man. The other principle — the principle of autoc- 
racy is diametrically and eternally opposed to the principle 
of democracy. The two principles cannot live together. The 
conflict between them is inevitable and eternal. One or the 
other must conquer. We must be either all free or all slaves; 
and it is in defense of that great and necessary principle of 
human liberty that the people of the United States abandon 



PRINCIPLES OF DEMOCRACY 135 

their security, with no enemy at their doors, with no one 
inflicting injury upon their smiling fields nor on their rich 
towns. It is in support of that principle necessary to human 
hberty that the people of the United States come to fight, to 
shed their blood and their treasure in the war which they hate 
as a peace-loving people, in order that our children may all 
live in peace and in justice and that the hateful principle 
of evil that has come down from a dark and cruel past may no 
longer oppress the earth, but may pass away and the new 
order of things may come. No one can tell what the issue of 
today or tomorrow may be! No one can tell what sacrifice 
and suffering stand between, but the ultimate supremacy of 
the principle of human freedom is as certain as the sunrise 
tomorrow. It cannot be turned back. It may be retarded 
here or there for the moment, but with the great movement 
of the human race, the conception of a sovereign power as 
necessary to the maintenance of order, is passing away, and 
the conception of great free peoples governing and main- 
taining order by the laws that they impose upon themselves 
is taking its place; and the majestic progress of an enlight- 
ened world will go on and on to the necessary result of a 
triumphant democracy the world over. 

God grant, my friends and all of our allies, that the day 
may come quickly and that the suffering and death — the 
agony — may soon end; but however long it may be, we 
must not permit human freedom to end — it is better to die 
than to be slaves. 



ADDRESS AT A LUNCHEON OF THE AMERICAN 
CLUB, PETROGRAD, JULY 6, 1917 

I NEED not tell you, who have been so long away from 
your home, in a far distant land, how it warms the hearts 
of the members of this Diplomatic Mission to find them- 
selves once more in the atmosphere of America and Ameri- 
canism, and to hear the familiar intonations and sounds of 
that best of English which you have been speaking. 

I think all of us received many messages from many 
friends to many of you, delivered almost daily in conversa- 
tion, "give my kind regards to so and so"; "remember 
me to so and so "; "I hope you will meet so and so; he is 
a good fellow; a good American; knows what he is about "; 
or " he can tell you much about Russia "; too many to be 
delivered individually, but we combine all of these messages 
of friendship and old acquaintance in one message from 
America to you Americans, and the message is : that America 
is awake; awake to her old traditions; to her old ideals; 
there has come back to your country the spirit of the earlier 
days, and you need have no fear that you in this distant 
land will have to blush for your country. 

You know what has been done; you know of the enroll- 
ment of ten million of the young men of America for military 
service; you know that forty thousand and more are being 
trained now in fourteen different camps throughout the 
country by the few officers of our regular army, to serve as 
officers in the greater American army of the near future; 
that five hundred thousand of the men enrolled are to be 
called up within a few weeks to be trained by these officers, 
who are now receiving their training, and that then the pro- 

136 



ADDRESS AT THE AMERICAN CLUB 137 

cess is to be repeated; more officers are then to be trained 
and when they are ready another five hundred thousand men 
are to be called up; that that process is to be repeated as 
often as it is necessary; you know that our ships are already 
in European waters acting in concert with the navies of our 
allies and protecting the ships of commerce upon the seas 
against the submarine attacks; you know that already 
engineer regiments are in France aiding in the preparation of 
the ways of communication, the railroads for the carrying of 
supplies from the bases to the front of the French and Eng- 
lish lines; you know that General Pershing is already there 
making the arrangements for the bases and the lines of com- 
munication for the service of the advanced division which is 
to take its place under the Stars and Stripes in that line of 
terrific conflict; and you know that already the efficient men 
in every branch of commerce, of industry, of transportation, 
of manufacture, of production of all kinds, have been called 
to Washington and are directing in concert with the Govern- 
ment, the mobilization and massing of the entire industrial 
capacity of our country behind the army which is in course 
of formation. Never before has there been such unity of the 
brain, the feeling, and the determination of the American 
people as is exhibited now in our own country. You are far 
away from the scene of that great action. It is impossible 
for you to play a part in that; but you can yet serve your 
country, serve it most effectively and most beneficially. 

Let me tell you that this Diplomatic Mission is returning 
full of admiration for what it has found in the character and 
the conduct of the Russian people. Many things go wrong; 
many things are done, which upon the surface appear to 
justify criticism; but I beg you to remember how many 
things in our own Government go wrong and appear to 
justify criticism. That is one of the essential, the necessary 
characteristics of a democracy in which individual freedom 



138 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

is preserved, and is not sacrificed to that intense discipline 
which destroys self-government. I think it is wonderful 
that the Russian people have preserved the peace and order 
that reigns here in Russia. We hear of a disturbance in this 
place, in that place, in another place, but this is a vast empire 
which covers a sixth of the habitable globe, with a hundred 
and eighty million people, and when you withdraw your 
attention from some specific act of disorder, and consider how 
small a part incidents of that description play in the great 
life of a people, you must realize that as a whole, the self- 
control and consideration for right, for justice, for the 
rights of others, displayed in Russia during these past few 
months constitutes one of the wonders of the world. Search- 
ing for the reason, inquiring why it is that this city of Petro- 
grad is so peaceful and orderly that a woman at any time of 
the day or night may pass through the streets with safety 
and without fear of molestation; why it is that all over this 
land order is preserved without the compulsion of law or the 
force of the policeman, under circumstances which we know 
very well would have developed widespread disorder and 
violence in our own country, I find it in certain essential and 
inherent qualities of Russian character: — the quality of 
kindly consideration for others; the capacity for united 
action, for systematic cooperation, for the attainment of 
specific ends; the capacity for organization in local self- 
government; and in the capacity for the organization of the 
agencies of local self-government into greater organizations 
with a national scope and purpose. These qualities furnish 
the test for the capacity of a people to govern itseK. That is 
the question; not little surface matters; not little peanut 
politics (I do not know that Mr. Rodzianko will know what 
I mean by peanut politics, but you Americans know what 
peanut politics are) . The question of whether a nation is to 
maintain its freedom depends upon the character of the 



ADDRESS AT THE AMERICAN CLUB 139 

people, and if you want to know whether a people has hope 
for the future in self-government find out its character. 
There is no more fatal gift than the gift of freedom to a 
nation that is not ready for it, and there is nothing more 
certain than that a nation which is ready for freedom will 
maintain its freedom when it gets it. 

Now I have said you can serve your country here. You 
can serve it by being true to the spirit of the American 
democracy here. How did we win and how have we main- 
tained our liberty with peace and order ? Not by our pros- 
perity; not by amassing wealth; not by building palaces; 
not by our two hundred and fifty thousand miles of railroad; 
we have maintained it by having stout hearts; by having 
faith in democracy; in the competency and power of the 
American democracy to meet the demands upon it and to 
solve its problems and to win its fights. It was so that our 
republic was built. Our fathers suffered, and endured, and 
sacrificed, and in the darkest days their hearts never failed. 
We have seen darker times than Russia sees now. We have 
seen times when the American dollar was worth less in pro- 
portion to gold than the Russian rouble is worth now; we 
have seen times when American finance seemed more desper- 
ate than Russian finance is today; we have seen the time 
when dissension, disorder, and controversy among our people 
seemed to be more bitter than any dissension or controversy 
among the Russian people seem to be now. You can serve 
your country by representing in every office and every home 
in Petrograd and in Russia to which an American comes, 
that spirit of American democracy here in Russia. Make it 
plain to all; carry the light of triumphant, and courageous 
and unflinching democracy, and faith in the capacity of a 
free people to maintain their freedom in every part. This 
great war has reached a point where the question of victory 
or defeat is not so much a question of military preparation; 



140 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

is not so much a question of numbers of men, or of guns, as 
it is a question of who have the stoutest hearts; who will 
faint first; who will give up first; who will lose faith first. 

You can help our friends and alKes in Russia by being 
— you one hundred Americans here — each one, the center 
of influence more potent than high explosives; of influ- 
ence making for com-age, and hope, and intrepidity, and 
undying persistency in the maintenance of freedom against 
the German autocracy. You can help to put courage into 
all Russia; help to cheer the despondent; help to maintain 
this government which is now carrying Russia through the 
doubtful and difficult period before the Constituent Assembly 
shall have established a permanent government and the 
people begin to make laws for themselves. This is the mis- 
sion of all of you; more important than that of this Diplo- 
matic Mission which has come from America. You are all of 
you envoys of your country, and you can help to maintain this 
great alliance and support the armies of your own country 
when they get into the field, by the power of your faith, which 
can move mountains, exhibited in your own proper persons, 
in your intercourse with your associates and your friends in 
Russia. More than that, by your faith and its manifesta- 
tions, by your appreciation of the qualities that make for 
self-government in Russia, by your faith in the Russian 
democracy, you can illustrate and bring honor to your people 
and to the spirit of the American democracy. You can make it 
known throughout this great country that in America, Amer- 
icans believe in the competency of the people to rule; believe 
in the competency of the Russian people to rule themselves 
and to maintain their freedom. You can have it understood 
in Russia that the motive which most moves America is not 
the success of your own business, is not the making of money, 
the promotion of commerce, but that it is loyalty, not only 
throughout America, but in Russia, and the whole world, to 



ADDRESS AT THE AMERICAN CLUB 141 

the high ideals of our fathers, the high ideals of the American 
Repubhc, for the hfting up of the great mass of toihng and 
enduring men throughout the world to freedom and oppor- 
tunity and peace and justice. Then, indeed, America will be 
honored and beloved here and everywhere in the civilized 
world. 



ADDRESS AT A MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OF 

LIQUIDATION OF THE AFFAIRS OF POLAND 

PETROGRAD, JULY 7, 1917 

IN behalf of all of my associates on the Diplomatic Mission 
which is now about concluding its visit to Russia, I thank 
you, both for the Idndly greeting with which you have 
received us, for your courtesy and friendship, and for the 
appropriate and appreciative words in which you have 
described the character of our country and the character of 
that President who is now in the forefront of the great battle 
for human liberty. 

There are many reasons why representatives of the free 
people of the United States should be most appreciative of 
this greeting from the men of Poland. It is not merely that 
as children we were taught to revere and honor the names of 
Kosciusko and Pulaski who, with others, many others, of the 
same blood, aided us one hundred and forty years ago in 
the hard struggle of the impoverished colonies of America 
to achieve their liberty; it is not alone that hundreds of 
thousands of Poles have sought opportunity and liberty in 
our free country, and by their industry, their probity, their 
good citizenship, and their high character, have elevated our 
conception of the character and genius of Poland. It is also 
because as lovers of liberty, Poles have worked with the 
forces of civilization to advance all that is noblest and best 
in humanity, that we look back with reverence and with joy 
to the great examples that Poland has given to the world. 
It is what you have done for us, — because your citizens are 
with us, and because of what you have done for humanity, 
that we are proud to be honored by you now. 



AFFAIRS OF POLAND 143 

You know that the people of the United States have lately 
taken the hard decision to enter the great world war. It was 
difficult for us to do it, because we are a peaceful people. No 
one had invaded our country; no one appeared to be taking 
away our liberty; but we came, step by step, as we watched 
the process of this great struggle, to realize that it was not 
merely the interests of the Allies in Europe that were at 
stake, but that the liberty of mankind was at stake, — your 
liberty and ours equally, and so, still preserving in the midst 
of our wealth, prosperity and ease, those great ideals that 
made America free, we determined that it was our duty to be 
ready to sacrifice treasure and life, in order that the world 
might live free from oppression. 

We are with you to fight for our freedom; happy to fight 
also for the freedom of that great nation which has given to 
us so much of genius; which has given to the world philo- 
sophers and sages, poets and musicians; which has been 
the admiration of mankind, but has for so long mourned for 
its own home and been an outcast from its roof -tree and its 
ancient abiding place. We are happy that we can fight with 
you, while you seek to secure again your birthright, and to 
take again your place among the nations of the world which 
you so well deserve. 

The policy of the Government of the United States has 
been not to permit any divisions in its military forces. It was 
determined that we would not allow even the division which 
would necessarily accompany military organizations upon 
national or racial lines, to interfere with the efficiency of our 
forces. We are raising a great army of Americans which will 
include Poles and Scandinavians and Irish and French and 
Italians and English, and the people of every blood on the 
face of the earth, all in one firmly knitted and united army, 
that its efficiency may be the greatest possible. But for that 
I am sure you would find great Polish legions organizing in 



144 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

America. But I am sure that the world will see many thou- 
sands of Poles coming from the citizenship of the United 
States, fighting under our Stars and Stripes, happy to meet 
danger and glad to die, if need be, for the liberty of their 
adopted country, and for the liberty of their fatherland. 

Union and strength, — all united without division or dis- 
tinction, — is the watchword under which we may best 
accomplish the great result we all seek. Our way is clear. 
No doubt need beset us or make our steps to falter. We 
know, all of us know, that liberty is impossible, either for us 
or others, in the neighborhood of the military autocracy of 
Germany. We know, all of us know, that no Poland can 
arise again from the ashes of the past if that military autoc- 
racy is dominant in Europe; and our pathway is clear. 
Germany must be defeated, and Poles and Americans alike 
will do their duty to accomplish this great defeat. Ah! 
happy men, happy men whose lot has fallen in this great 
era! Happy men who, after all these long years, after these 
many generations of helplessness and despair, at last, at last, 
find it in your lives to make your sacrifices for the liberty of 
Poland. Ah! God is good to you, God is good to you that 
you live now, not in the dark and hopeless days of the past 
and not in the future, where our children will only have to 
look back to the great deeds which will set the name and the 
fame and military genius of Poland again on the pedestal, as 
high as that on which Poland stood when it rescued Christen- 
dom from the hordes of the Moslem invader. My congratu- 
lations to you all. America congratulates you all, and 
America will be proud upon that great day when a renewed 
Poland shall take its place among the free self-governments 
of the world by the side of free democratic America. 



ADDRESS BEFORE A LARGE BODY OF RUSSIAN 
SOLDIERS AT PERM, JULY 13, 1917 

MY companions and I are a Mission from the demo- 
cratic republic of America to the Russian people. We 
came across the sea to Russia to say to the Russian 
people that Americans are their friends, and have gone 
into this great war to fight with Russians for the liberty of 
Russia and of America against the overbearing and oppres- 
sive mihtary autocracy of Germany. When we came we were 
alarmed by the confusion which had followed your glorious 
revolution. You had gained your freedom; you had cast 
off the discipline of the superior powers of the bureaucratic 
government that oppressed you; you had not yet gained 
that new discipline, that new capacity to work together for 
a common object, which comes with the training and experi- 
ence of free self-government. There was confusion; there 
was lack of that discipline which is necessary to enable an 
army to fight successfully and to win victories over its 
enemy. But, God be praised, you are now acquiring that 
discipline and capacity to work together for victory over 
your enemy. God sent a great man to be your leader in 
Kerensky, and under his leadership, under his appeals to the 
soldiers at the front, discipKne has been restored. And 
under that great general, whose fame will live forever, 
Brusiloff, under the lead of Brusiloff at the front, the soldiers 
of Russia on the 18th of June marched again against the 
German foe; and on the 18th of June the Russian army 
advanced with perfect discipline, with perfect enthusiasm, 
with perfect courage, and won another victory, as glorious as 
any ever won by Russian arms, because it was a victory over 



146 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

the forces that were tending to destroy Russian diseipHne, 
and a victory over the enemy as well. That discipline, that 
spirit, that capacity to fight together against the enemy, has 
appeared throughout the entire front from Riga to the 
Caucasus and Persia. When you reach the front you will 
come to an army that is inspired by love for Russia; an 
army steadied by renewed confidence in its superior officers 
who are leading it to victory, and an army that is inspired 
by the determination to maintain the liberty you have 
won by your great revolution. Let me tell you that your 
liberty cannot be preserved unless you are willing to make 
sacrifices for it, to fight for it, to risk your lives for it. I 
tell you this because I come from a people who won their 
liberty one hundred and forty years ago and have been 
struggling to maintain it ever since. Your Kberty which you 
have today will be taken from you unless you have the 
strength and the courage to maintain it. No one in this 
world, no nation, ever kept its liberty unless it had the 
strength and the courage and will to defend it. You are 
going to the front to fight with brave comrades, under great 
generals, for the greatest cause on earth; the liberty, the 
equality and the independent manhood of the one hundred 
and eighty million people of free Russia. As you fight, will- 
ing to die if need be, you are helping to hand down to your 
children and your children's children, the Hberty that you 
have won and that you are preserving. As you go to the 
front, as you go into battle, we pray that God's blessings may 
go with you and keep you safe, and enable you to do the full 
service of free men for your free country. 



ADDRESS BEFORE A GATHERING OF SOLDIERS AND 
CITIZENS AT NAZUVAESKAYA, JULY 14, 1917 

UPON this train are the members of a Mission sent 
across the sea from America, half-way around the 
world, to bring a message of friendship and loyal com- 
radeship to the democracy of Russia. In that distant 
land young men are gathering, as you are gathered, to 
fight for liberty, for American liberty and Russian liberty, 
against the common foe, the military autocracy of Ger- 
many; and they will fight, as you will fight to the end, 
until victory crowns the flag of freedom in the battle against 
oppression and autocracy. More than one hundred years 
ago on this great day the people of France, the plain people 
of France, began their wonderful fight for their liberty which 
they still maintain under the same flag under which they 
fought for it, to the sound of the same air that you have been 
playing here today, the Marseillaise. With their sufferings 
and sacrifices, with their blood, it was the people of France 
who taught you and taught us that those who deserve 
liberty must be willing to fight for it. You and we will still 
fight, side by side, with the men of France, for their liberty 
and ours, and you and we will continue the struggle until we 
know that our children will inherit our lands in freedom, 
subject to no autocrat, subject to no oppressive class; free 
men, each one his own master, the master of his own fate; 
until a great, free, and happy people shall govern them- 
selves under the law of justice and of liberty. Our blessings 
go with you, young men of Russia, as you go to fight your 
country's battles, and the world's battles, for the noblest 



148 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

cause that ever lifted up the head of man, and inspired him 
with deeds of valor and made him indifferent to death. To 
you we pledge the cooperation, the aid, the comradeship of 
the men, the young men, of free democratic America until the 
glorious day of victory. 



ADDRESS AT A RECEPTION BY THE CITY OF 
SEATTLE, AUGUST 4, 1917 

THIS Diplomatic Mission which is now returning from its 
long and fatiguing journey to our new sister republic on 
the other side of the world is deeply grateful for this generous 
welcome back to our country. 

It is our country, though each one of us is far from his own 
fireside. It is our country because on the Atlantic and the 
Pacific, in the Alleghenies and the Sierras, on the Mississippi 
and the Hudson and the Columbia, there prevail the same 
standard of independent manhood, the same love of justice, 
the same indomitable determination to be free, and the 
loyalty to the same ideals that have made America the 
greatest union for liberty and justice the world has ever 
seen. This is our country and it is our home and you, men 
and women of Seattle, are our brothers and our sisters in 
the great brotherhood of civilization, of humanity, of 
Christianity. 

This is a diplomatic mission and it is not suitable that in 
advance of reporting to the Department of State, from which 
we have come, we should talk to you or to anybody about the 
special circumstances or conclusions of our Mission. But 
I cannot refrain from saying that we bring back from Russia 
a deep sympathy for the efforts of that young democracy 
which is struggling now month by month with the hard 
problems that we have taken one hundred and forty years to 
solve and have not yet solved. We bring back not only a 
deep sympathy, but a sincere admiration for the qualities 
of Russian character. We have found the Russians kindly, 
considerate of the rights and feelings of others, with a 

149 



150 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

high capacity for self-control, with an extraordinary ability 
for united action and with a noble idealism that leads always 
in the better way towards higher things; and we have an 
abiding faith that Russia, through trials and tribulations, 
indeed, which she cannot escape, will work out, create and 
make perpetual a great free, self-governing, democratic 
government. 

In Russia, almost within the sound of the guns, I think we 
got a little nearer to the truth that lies in the great war upon 
which our country has just entered. I think we bring back 
a deeper realization of some things which it has been hard for 
the people of the United States to appreciate. We see now 
why it is that all the world is at war. We see that for cen- 
turies we have been building up a structure of civihzation. 
We have fondly believed that the world was growing better, 
more humane, more just, more devoted to justice, more will- 
ing to permit our fellow-men to enjoy freedom. We have 
believed that the old dark days of cruelty and tyranny were 
passed away; and the nations of the earth year by year have 
entered into solemn covenants to observe more nearly those 
divine precepts under which we all profess to live. For that 
cause of the upward progress of humanity along the pathway 
of civilization to a true Christian life, our fathers fought and 
suffered. In that cause our American republic was born and 
struggled and agonized, and all that is best and truest in 
American nature was evolved in the course of its aid and in 
efforts towards advancing that cause of humanity and 
civilization. 

We see now more clearly than ever before that a great 
military power, a great military autocracy, proceeding upon 
the principle, animated by the spirit, avowing the purpose of 
the dark and cruel past, has thrown down the gauntlet to the 
civihzation and the liberty of our day. We see that Germany 
repudiates the rule of morality upon nations; that the con- 



ADDRESS AT SEATTLE 151 

trol of law, the law of nations to which she has solemnly 
agreed, is cast aside the moment her interest conflicts with it; 
that the faith of treaties, the solemn, binding faith of treaties, 
that faith without which human society cannot endure 
except as a society of slaves subject to despotism, the faith of 
treaties is repudiated and held as naught. We see that all 
those rules which a kindly civilization has agreed upon in the 
past to ameliorate the horrors of war are cast aside with 
cynical indifference. We see that for the sake of ambition, 
of lust for military glory, laws are violated, treaties held as 
naught, peaceful nations are overrun, the rule of morality is 
repudiated, the laws of humanity are forgotten; burned 
homes and devastated lands, outraged women and murdered 
children, mark the pathway by which this reincarnation of 
cruelty and barbarism is marching to the domination of the 
world. We see now that the principles of good and evil, the 
principles of liberty and slavery, the principles of humanity 
and cruelty have locked horns in a conflict which cannot be 
downed. We see that the ideals of our fathers in this republic 
must go down to earth before the triumphant march of this 
German Moloch, or the men who are loyal to those ideals 
must muster their manhood in their support. 

It is not a matter of sentiment, of something far away. As 
sm*e as the sun shall rise tomorrow, if this war ends with the 
triumph of Germany, this country will become a subject 
nation, for the principles and the temper of the German 
people — of the German ruling class I should say — ever 
reaching out for more power will turn, aye, it has turned its 
eyes toward the fertile fields, the vast wealth and the great 
unpeopled spaces of this rich and defenseless hemisphere. 
Leave your wealth on the sidewalk and trust that the passing 
thief will refrain from taking it; send your richly laden ships 
to sea and trust that the pirate will let them pass without 
interference, rather than let America remain rich beyond the 



152 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

dreams of avarice and unwilling or incompetent to defend 
herself. Ah ! We are none too soon in beginning our prepara- 
tion for the preservation of our liberty. There will be sacri- 
fices. Ah, yes! They will be bitter. There will be wounds and 
death. Some of us will die. There will be orphaned children 
and widowed homes. There will be straitened means, sac- 
rifices of comfort. There will be discouragement and doubt 
and almost despair, but in the end there will be a great free 
country re-made in the spirit of our fathers and competent 
to perform its divine mission of carrying liberty and justice 
throughout the earth. 

I have been thinking as I drove about the streets of your 
splendid city this morning, of that great migration which 
saved this noble and smiling land to our American republic. 
I have been thinking of that worn and travel-stained and 
wearied procession that came across the long trail in the 
forties and saved the Oregon country for the United States 
by taking possession of it in the name of the American 
republic. 

This noble city, these splendid palaces, your comfort and 
your luxury, all rest upon the endurance, the hardships, the 
sacrifices and suffering of those early pioneers. It is not 
the possession that counts; it is the building. It is not your 
luxury and your comforts, it is not your palaces and 
your wonderful railroads, that toughen the sinews and ener- 
gize the brain cells and broaden the view and give indom- 
itable courage to manhood, that make a state like this. It is 
the hard work, the early sacrifices, the sufferings — and the 
Hberty that is founded upon hardship, upon sacrifices and 
upon sufferings. It is not only eternal vigilance which is the 
price of liberty; it is eternal struggle which is the price of 
hberty. The test, the first and great test, is not between 
German troops and American troops, or German troops and 
French and Russian troops. It is between the great and 



ADDRESS AT SEATTLE 153 

noble qualities of American nature and the degrading ten- 
dencies that come with luxury and wealth and prosperity and 
tend to drag men down from effort and from sacrifice. 

We are in this war and we have got to stay in it, and we 
have got to go on with it, and we have got to make our sacri- 
fices, because we are fighting for our own liberty. We are 
fighting for the deliverance of this dear country of ours whose 
freedom and justice have given us all our opportunities and 
which we would hand down undivided and unimpaired to 
our children's children. 

Do not argue about the cause of the war. Do not argue 
about why we are in the war or whether we should be in the 
war. Do not argue the whys and wherefores, but realize 
this, that the time has now come when America's liberty, 
America's justice, the independence and freedom of every 
one of us, is a stake for which we must fight. If we are not all 
hypocrites, if all our profession of love for country, if all our 
devotion to the ideals of the fathers be not rank hypocrisy, 
now when the great test has come we will gird our loins and 
go into the battle with whole and fearless hearts and fight for 
America as no people ever fought before. 



ADDRESS AT A RECEPTION BY THE CITY OF 
NEW YORK, CITY HALL, AUGUST 15, 1917 

A great popular reception at the City Hall was tendered to the Russian Mission 
by Mayor Mitchel upon its arrival in New York City, August 15, 1917. The 
welcoming address was made by the Honorable Oscar S. Straus, chairman of the 
Mayor's committee, who said among other things: 

It will ever be remembered that America was first among the nations to 

extend its oflBcial recognition to the new Russia, and to welcome her to the 

family of democratic nations. The President deemed it of the first importance 

to interpret the spirit of our great democracy, with Its trials, struggles, and 

trimnphs, to our youngest co-partner and ally, and he selected from among all 

our citizens the foremost of our constructive statesmen, and placed him at the 

head of this important and extraordinary Mission. 

Then the Mayor presented to Mr. Root the first medal of valor of the National 

Arts Club, awarded to Mr. Root for his acceptance of what the Mayor called " the 

very real hazards of this Mission." He then introduced Mr. Root, who spoke as 

follows: 

THIS medal is the first object of desire, the first fruit of 
this Mission, which has not been shared with perfect 
equahty among all the nine members of the mission. I hope 
that it will not prove a golden apple of discord among us. I 
must attribute the selection of myself as its recipient to that 
friendship that is so grateful to the heart among the people of 
my own home. I beg you, sir, to convey to the National Arts 
Club an expression of my sincere and grateful appreciation 
for the undeserved honor which they have done me. 

The duty which was imposed upon the special Diplomatic 
Mission to Russia was one of very great importance and signi- 
ficance, but its performance required no extraordinary 
qualities and involved no extraordinary merit. The way was 
plain and we had, each one of us, merely to do our bit as best 
we could in the discharge of a simple and imperative duty. 
We did the best we knew how. We did it with the most 

154 



ADDRESS AT NEW YORK CITY HALL 155 

perfect harmony and with whatever strength comes from 
united action. Drawn from all parts of the country, selected 
with an evident purpose to represent different points of view 
of the American people — a soldier, a sailor, a manufacturer, 
a retired capitalist, a banker, a labor leader, a socialist, a 
religious worker, a New York lawyer — we all were abso- 
lutely united in our conception of the spirit of our mission 
and in the union of effort to perform our duty. Yet it is 
inexpressibly grateful to us, sir, that in this great city to 
which we now return, we are thought to have done useful 
service, and that the belief in the usefulness of our service is 
sufficiently strong to move you and the distinguished citizens 
of New York who are about this circle to this outward 
manifestation of approval. 

It is not the first time that the importance of the cause has 
been transferred to the individuals who have represented the 
cause. It was a great cause, it was a great errand. There 
never was in history a people finding itself in a more difficult 
and perilous position than the people of Russia found them- 
selves in a few months ago. When the Czar was removed and 
his government was driven out, there was left a great people 
of one hundred and eighty million, covering a vast territory, 
without a government. They had never been taught to govern 
themselves. They had no institutions of national self-govern- 
ment; and no people, no democracy can govern itself except 
through institutions of government. The hundred and 
eighty million people of Russia were left without a govern- 
ment by the dethronement of the Czar, and they were left 
without any institutions of self-government. They had, 
moreover, in general, no knowledge, no intimate and personal 
knowledge of the methods and the necessities of self-govern- 
ment. The great body of the people were wholly ignorant 
of how to carry on a national government for themselves. 
They had been accustomed to receive orders and to obey. 



156 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

They had no habits of thought which would enable them, the 
great body of them, to evolve institutions through which to 
govern. And so this vast people who had never been per- 
mitted to speak or write or think upon self-government were 
left confused, bewildered, gathering in little groups in aim- 
less and endless discussion. 

Then came the propaganda of the extreme socialists and 
anarchists, of the internationals, the analogue in Russia 
to the I. W. W. of this country; the men whose motto is 
that the worst is the best; the men who seek to destroy 
the industrial organization of the world, to destroy the 
nationalism of the world with a far-off dream in its place of 
a universal brotherhood to govern all the world in har- 
mony and peace. These men were aided by thousands who 
had swarmed back to Russia from America, thousands 
who returned vilifying and abusing the land that gave them 
refuge, gave them security, gave them liberty to think and 
speak and act. These refugees returned to Russia declaring 
America to be as tyrannous as the Czar, and calling for the 
destruction, not for the setting-up, of competent government 
in Russia, and for the destruction of all governments, of 
America, of England, of France, of Italy, and incidentally 
of Germany. They poisoned the minds of the working-men, 
and of peasants and of soldiers. Their definite and distinct 
object was to destroy the whole industrial and national 
system of Russia. And they had power in Petrograd, for 
there at the beginning the garrison adhered to them. 

Into this condition of vast confusion and bewilderment 
was thrust a great German propaganda. Thousands of Ger- 
man agents swarmed over the line immediately upon the 
coming of the revolution. They awakened all the pro- 
Germans in Russia. They spent money like water. Millions 
upon millions were used. They bought people; they bribed 
people; they bought newspapers; they established news- 



ADDRESS AT NEW YORK CITY HALL 157 

papers; they circulated literature; they went to and fro 
among the troops at the front. They said, " Why go on 
fighting ? This was the Czar's war; it was not your war; 
why go on ? Let us have peace." The people of Russia, 
the soldiers of Russia, were wearied of war, like all the rest 
of Europe, and peace seemed so desirable to them that for 
the moment it seemed as if this German propaganda had 
captured Russia, had done what her arms never could do, cap- 
tured Russia. The internationals, the extremists, who were 
preaching a great world union of human freedom, made 
common cause with the bribing and insidious agents of the 
German autocracy to overcome the freedom of Russia. 
Against these influences, in an attempt to build up a new 
republic, with the enemy at their gates, and the insidious 
influences sapping all their power, a few men in Russia made 
the bravest, noblest, most gallant fight of our time for the 
safety of human freedom and the building up of free self- 
government in their country. 

It was the function of this Mission not merely to carry a 
message of friendship and good feeling from the United 
States to Russia. As events developed before we reached 
Russia, it became the function of this group of American 
citizens to carry to the people of Russia a message of faith 
in democracy; to say to them, " Take heart, be of good cheer, 
faint not, despair not. We say to you from the hundred 
million free people of America, who for one hundred and forty 
years have been fighting the battles of democracy, that there 
lives a power in democracy that will overcome aU evil, and 
it is with you, and with it you will triumph.'* It was the 
fimction of this Mission to put courage and hope into many 
a faint heart, to point out that the way to safety led through 
the support, the earnest and active support of the existing 
provisional government of Russia; that no oratory, that 
no aimless theorizing could answer the purpose, but that 



158 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

there must be government, and that the government they 
had must be supported, sustained, promoted, strengthened, if 
they would be free. Little by httle that government, begin- 
ning with no power, a government merely of moral suasion, 
with no force to execute a decree, gathering to itself the 
forces of Russian thought and character, acquired the power, 
gradually secured confidence, secured the support of the 
garrison in Petrograd, began to restore discipline, to restore 
a consciousness that freedom was not that every man should 
do what he pleased, but that freedom was order, freedom 
was the reciprocal limitation of individual liberty. That 
government, gathering slowly the forces of Russia, at last 
came to the point where it was able to lift up its hand and 
say, " The time has come when those who fight against us 
must take up the sword, for they will perish by the sword." 
Since our departure from Petrograd, processes that began 
before have been going on along the lines that were explained 
to us before we left that country, and the results that the 
government then had in mind have been worked out and are 
manifest today, with Kerensky, that man of conviction, of 
intense purpose, of tremendous personality, devoted to his 
great cause to the last drop of his blood. Kerensky, who, 
when we were there, was agreed upon by the members of the 
government for his present position, now rules the destinies 
of Russia; and with him in the government are wise, 
prudent, sagacious men of affairs. 

I know of no greater exhibition of competency in 'construc- 
tive government than has been given to the world by the 
provisional government of Russia during the past three 
months. So we have come back with faith in Russia, faith 
in the qualities of character that are the essential tests of 
competency for seK-government, faith in the purpose, the 
persistency and the power of the Russian people to keep 
themselves free. And they know that they cannot be free. 



ADDRESS AT NEW YORK CITY HALL 159 

that they cannot build up a structure of government based 
upon and conforming to the life and character and genius of 
the Russian people, if Germany is allowed to dominate in 
their land. They know it well. I do not know what the result 
of military operations will be; no man can forecast that; but 
I do know that Russia has found herself; she has found her- 
self, and on every jSeld, military and civil, she will give a good 
account of herself to the democratic world; and we need not 
blush for having extended our hand to her in friendship and 
brotherhood. 

I have said that it was the function of this Diplomatic Mis- 
sion to take to the Russian people a message of faith in 
democracy. My friends, we return to America to repeat that 
message. Here, as there, a German propaganda is seeking to 
sap the strength of this free democracy. Here, as there, Ger- 
man money is percolating throughout the country, buying 
men here and buying men there, inspiring the press here and 
the press there, building up a great concealed structure of real 
treason. Here, as there, there are weak sentimentalists who, 
speaking for peace and justice and harmony among men, 
lend themselves to the support and advancement of the most 
terrible enemy that peace and justice and harmony and 
humanity have had since Genghis Khan fell. Here, as there, 
there are men who proclaim their patriotism and sell their 
country. But here, as there, the time is at hand when the 
power of a democracy, long-suffering, indecisive at first, will 
gather to a point; and then when the power of the American 
democracy exerts itself against its real enemy within, let 
these men beware. No form of law, no fiction of theory will 
prevent the usages of war being applied to them. For a 
hundred and forty years, as we told the Russians, we have 
been fighting the hard battles of democracy. Democracy 
has not that power of instant action which characterizes 
a mihtary autocracy. Democracy cannot command that 



160 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

united action, that union of purpose and concert of forward 
motion which an autocracy can command; but democracy- 
has its reserves of power that no autocracy can have, and 
those reserves are here. They are all about us. They are 
unexhausted. They are ready to be moved on, and they will 
be moved. 

We bring back from Russia to you and to all our friends at 
home an echo of our message: have faith, be stout of heart, 
be courageous and hopeful; brush aside all trifling criticisms 
and doubts; believe in your own power; do not doubt the 
triumph of the democracy of America, or the triumph of that 
great world movement of democracy — that great movement 
of the human mind which is passing on over the continents 
to the exile of autocrats and the universal triumph of govern- 
ment by the people, lifting up all those who labor and endure 
to their inheritance of opportunity, of justice, and of liberty. 
Do not doubt its triumph for a moment. God in the heavens 
has manifested His eternal purpose, so that the simplest may 
read, that autocracy's days are doomed, and the triumph, the 
universal triumph of democracy approaches; and America, 
great democratic America, courageous and powerful, is still 
to do its mighty work in that regeneration of mankind. 



FAITH IN RUSSIA 

ADDRESS AT A RECEPTION OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 

OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, NEW YORK CITY 

AUGUST 15, 1917 

THE Special Diplomatic Mission to Russia, now in liqui- 
dation, was intentionally separated from any concern 
with business, with trade, investment, or enterprise for 
money-making of any kind. This was done carefully, and it 
was insisted upon strenuously by the Mission itself in Russia, 
in order that our message to the government and people of 
Russia might be free from any suspicion or color of selfish 
purpose. Yet I wish to say a few words to you about the 
substantial elements in Russian life and Russian conditions 
which should enter into a judgment, on your part, as to the 
confidence to which Russia is entitled. 

I have just been talking in the City Hall about the condi- 
tions in which Russia found herself when the government of 
the Czar was ended — and I need not repeat what I said 
there. The extraordinary ease with which the Czar's govern- 
ment was removed, was due not merely to the fact that it was 
an autocracy, but also to the fact that it did not govern effi- 
ciently; it was not up to the job; it had allowed Russia to 
drift into a position where there was vast confusion and the 
country was on the verge of bankruptcy. The government 
had become, practically, merely a government of suppression, 
a government of negatives that ceased to lead the people, so 
that the Czar and the bureaucracy were slipped off as easily 
as a crab sheds its hard shell when the proper time comes. 

And then Russia was left without a government. The laws 
which had their virtue from the command of the Czar seemed 
to have lost their sanction and moral force; the police disap- 

161 



162 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

peared; they were chased out, and those that were not dis- 
posed of in that way speedily became invisible. The Duma, 
in its last act, appointed a provisional government — that is, 
it appointed a number of gentlemen to fill the places of 
the heads of the executive departments — but that govern- 
ment had no power. It took up the machinery of adminis- 
tration, but it had no power to enforce a decree. The soldiers 
of Petrograd, who had been the physical force of the revolu- 
tion, deferred to a voluntary organization of deputies of 
working-men and soldiers, who met in Petrograd, twenty-five 
hundred of them, and discussed and passed resolutions. The 
soldiers were with them, and the provisional government, 
while carrying on the machinery of administration, had no 
power to enforce a decree, and anybody in Russia was 
practically free to do anything he chose. Russia was under 
the control of thousands of local committees all over that 
vast land, without any relation to each other, and without 
any subordination to the machinery of the government in 
Petrograd. Now, not only was this acephalous condition 
created, but the people had never been thinking about the 
machinery of government, they had no institutions through 
which to carry on self-government. They had no habit of 
thought which would enable them to create institutions 
readily for national government. They were dazed, con- 
fused, bewildered. Up to the revolution it had been a crimi- 
nal offense to hold meetings and discuss public questions. 
Under the rulings of the police three was an unlawful crowd, 
so that if three men undertook to talk about the weather in 
the street, they were required to move on or were arrested. 
Immediately after the revolution all Russia began to meet 
and discuss. That was the condition when the Mission 
reached there. 

Now, into that state of affairs there came intervention by 
that malevolent power which is intermeddling with the 



FAITH IN RUSSIA 163 

affairs of every nation upon earth, stirring up discord, stimu- 
lating, feeding, financing all the forces of evil — doing it here 
among us now. That power that finds its account in alliance 
with all evil passions, all the sordid impulses of humanity in 
every nation in the world, entered into Russia. Thousands 
of its agents poured over the border immediately upon the 
revolution. All the pro-German sympathizers in Russia 
were visited and spurred to action. Newspapers were pur- 
chased, and newspapers were established, literature was dis- 
tributed, and a great propaganda went on to fill the minds of 
the simple-minded people, who had never thought or talked 
about political affairs, to fill their minds with the German 
view of the war and their duty. The men who correspond to 
the I. W. W. here, the extreme socialists and anarchists, with 
whom the German agents made common cause, preached and 
sought to bring about the destruction of the industrial and 
financial system in Russia, the destruction of nationalism in 
Russia, under the promise to the peasants and the working- 
men of a universal brotherhood of the proletariat of the 
world, which should destroy all national government, and 
bring in a universal reign of peace and brotherly love, not 
suggesting to them what Germany might do in the mean- 
time if the national force of Russia was destroyed for the 
purpose of bringing about the millennium. 

Notwithstanding all this, in a country with no central 
government that had power to enforce its decrees, in a coun- 
try with no police, a country in which the sanction and moral 
obligation of the laws had disappeared with the disappear- 
ance of the Czar, there reigned order to a higher degree than 
has existed in the United States of America during this 
period. 

In the first enthusiasm for freedom and in the liberation of 
political prisoners, a great many ordinary criminal prisoners 
were also released, and they went about and committed some 



164 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

depredations which of course all found their way into the 
newspapers; but even with that, the general average of peace 
and order, of respect for property and life in Russia, was 
higher than could reasonably be expected from any hundred 
and eighty million people in the world under any gov- 
ernment. 

Now, that extraordinary phenomenon called for a study, a 
careful study, not merely from the newspapers or from talk- 
ing with government officials, but by countless serious inter- 
views and conversations with men of all grades and stripes 
and callings and conditions of life; and these studies satisfied 
all the members of this Mission that the Russian people pos- 
sessed, to a very high degree, qualities that are necessary for 
successful self-government. They have self-control equalled 
in few countries of the world. They have persistency of 
purpose; they have a most kindly and ingrained respect — 
not only respect, regard — for the rights of others. They 
will not willingly do an injustice to any one, and that 
sense of justice carries with it a broad charity. They have a 
noble idealism which is developed and exhibited in the minds 
that are enlarged by education, and they have a strong sense 
of the mission of liberty in the world, and they have an ex- 
traordinary capacity for concerted action. That is shown in 
their self-government in the village community in which their 
httle affairs are dealt with in the most every-day method 
of discussion — agreement — subordination of individual 
views to the general opinion; in the zemstvos which take 
in a little larger scope; in the town councils and in the 
union during the war of these local agencies for general 
purposes, the union of zemstvos and the union of the war 
munition committees, which are all working together most 
successfully and practically. There you see the union of 
citizens for political purposes which comes very close to gov- 
ernment. So we came to the conclusion that the Russian 



FAITH IN RUSSIA 165 

people have, in a very high degree, the quahties necessary to 
create and maintain a successful free government. 

That is the test. There can be no more fatal gift to a 
people than the duty of self-government when their charac- 
ters are not equal to the performance of the duty. The ques- 
tion of a people's maintaining their freedom is not to be de- 
termined by the little spectacular incidents which are picked 
up and published with headlines in the newspapers. The 
question is to be determined by the underlying and real char- 
acter of the people. If their character is right, against all 
enemies and all misfortunes they will win through to estab- 
lished freedom. If their character is unequal to the task, all 
the aid of all the great countries in the world cannot give 
them their freedom. Freedom must find its foundation, its 
sure foundation, within the people themselves, and we think 
the Russians have that sure foundation. 

Now there is great financial difficulty in Russia; the old 
regime brought the country into a very involved and critical 
condition financially; and there is great disturbance indus- 
trially. But when I have met people, and I have, a great 
many, who shake their heads over the industrial and financial 
conditions there, I have thought always, with a cheerful 
reassurance, of what a character these people have, and I 
have remembered that our dollar in the Civil War was as low 
as the Russian rouble, and I have no doubt that the character 
of the Russians will pull up their finances just as the charac- 
ter of Americans pulled up our finances. 

I remembered, also, that in a country where eighty-five 
per cent of the people are land-owning peasants, industrial 
and financial difficulties do not cut so deep as they do in a 
country which is chiefly industrial in the ordinary sense of 
the word. There is no such convulsion caused by troubles 
which affect only fifteen per cent of the people, as where there 
are troubles which affect the whole; that is, the more highly 



166 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

organized, industrially and financially, a country is, the 
greater ruin brought by industrial and financial diflSculties. 
With Russia, all financial trouble that there is or may be, 
passing over the heads of eighty-five per cent of the people, 
affects them little. 

A schedule, an appraisement of the property of Russia — 
that is, the available property which could be used for the 
production of income, or sold for productive purposes — has 
just been made; it has been made under the direction of 
Mr. Pakrovsky, former minister of finance under the Czar's 
government, a gentleman whose ability and integrity are 
most highly respected, and while it is not completed in 
detail, he finds that a moderate appraisement of that prop- 
erty, appraised just as you would appraise the property of 
any corporation, exceeds over sixty billion dollars. So you 
have a background against which to consider Russia — this 
vast property, the value of which of course depends upon the 
maintenance of a stable government, protecting property 
rights, and for the existence of such a government you have 
the true character of the Russian people and their respect for 
property rights. You have that vast country to be opened, 
to be developed, the great stretch through Siberia, from the 
Urals to the Pacific, with unimaginable wealth of the same 
kind which has made the power of our great republic. You 
have the wealth, you have the character, you have the oppor- 
tunity for development, and with these, I feel certain that 
Russia is going to create and maintain a free self-government 
which will make her a republic worthy to stand side by side 
with the great republic of the United States, and a republic 
which will spur us to higher effort in order that we may be 
worthy to stand with her. 

There is but one danger I see, and that is that Russia, 
God forbid it, may be overwhelmed by Germany; and if that 
were to happen, the development of the free institutions in 



FAITH IN RUSSIA 167 

Russia, adapted to her life and character and the genius of 
the Russian people, would be made impossible. The Rus- 
sians know that — the thoughtful men of Russia know that 
— and, with courage worthy of all honor, with courage 
worthy of imitation by us, they are wrestling mightily to 
prevent that great misfortune. No one can tell what the 
outcome will be, but this is certain, that Russia, tired of the 
war, worn and harried by war; Russia, which has lost seven 
millions of her sons, with every village in mourning, every 
family bereaved; Russia has again taken up the heavy bur- 
den; she has to a great extent restored the discipline of her 
army; she has put away the bright vision of peace and rest, 
and returned yet again to the sacrifice and the suffering of 
war in order that she may continue free. Ah! If we love 
freedom, if we are true children of our fathers, and cherish 
their ideals, confidence and hope will go out from us to those 
brave Russians who are fighting our battles as they are fight- 
ing their own; and we will uphold the hands of our Govern- 
ment and encourage the spirit of our people to do our duty 
beyond measure, to help them in their great and noble work. 



SYMPATHY WITH RUSSIA 

ADDRESS AT THE BANQUET OF THE AMERICAN BAR 
ASSOCIATION, SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK 
SEPTEMBER 7, 1917 

At the conclusion of its Saratoga session, the American Bar Association tendered 
a banquet to Mr. Root, at which the toastmaster, ex-Senator George Sutherland of 
Utah, the president of the Association, introduced Mr. Root in the following words: 
The American Bar Association, departing from its usual custom, has given 
this dinner in honor of its most distinguished member, a lawyer of profound 
learning and great ability, schooled in the best traditions of a noble profession. 
It has been my good fortune to know, more or less intimately, a large pro- 
portion of the public men of my generation, and to be reasonably familiar 
with the history of the others, and I take advantage of this occasion to say — 
not by way of idle compliment, but as a matter of profound conviction — that 
this great American whom we thus honor will pass into the history of his 
country as the safest counsellor and wisest statesman of his time. 

I present with pleasure — I present with very real and great affection, our 
distinguished guest and former president, Elihu Root. 

IT is very hard to speak after such an introduction. It is 
hard to forget the sense of unworthiness caused by such 
words as the too partial friendship of Senator Sutherland has 
permitted him to use; but who could remain silent who has a 
voice in these days ? Who can think of his own personality 
amid the tremendous issues that confront us and the ter- 
rible responsibility that rests upon us ? Men are nothing. 
From out of the dead level of ordinary humdrum life, from 
ease and comfort, the struggle for place and fortune, the 
common things of every day, the rising feeling of duties and 
ideals and devotion sinks all personality. 

There are no persons now; there is only a country. There 
are no countries now: there is only a world in which the 
great conflict has come between right and wrong, between 
the angels of light and the angels of darkness; and we are. 



170 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

each one of us, but an indistinguishable particle in the great 
conflict that is to determine the future of mankind. 

I promised some of my friends, in response to their ques- 
tioning, that I would tell you something tonight about 
Russia. I can do it only because it is a part of the great 
drama of intense interest that has turned this meeting of the 
American Bar Association from a conference over dry laws 
and technical and scientific questions into a great patriotic 
meeting. 

Let me say something about Russia, poor, harried, bleed- 
ing, agonizing Russia. In March last, the government of the 
Czar had brought Russia to the verge of bankruptcy. The 
Czar was dethroned, not merely because he was an autocrat 
— that would have waited until the war was over — but 
because his government was incompetent and dishonest; 
because the men who were controlling in that government 
were bought with German money and were traitors to their 
country, to the great cause in which Russia had enlisted. 

The Duma was in session, and wise and able men in that 
body perceived that the bureaucratic government was 
making its arrangements for a separate peace, in violation of 
the pledged faith of Russia; a peace which would have 
inflicted intolerable shame upon their country through 
desertion of those other nations who had come to the aid of 
Russia in her struggle. Wise and able men there charged the 
government with the purpose to make a separate peace. The 
Czar issued an order that the Duma dissolve, and the Duma 
refused to dissolve, and that precipitated the revolution. 

Upon that, the great body of socialists in Petrograd who 
had been attacking the government, had been forming their 
plans ultimately to overthrow the government, arose, took to 
the street, called upon the Petrograd garrison whom they had 
won over to their views, and drove out the police of the 
bureaucracy. The agents of the Duma called upon the Czar 



SYMPATHY WITH RUSSIA 171 

for his abdication; and he abdicated. The Duma imme- 
diately appointed new heads of all the departments, who took 
possession of the machinery of government. The socialists 
formed themselves into a body which was known as the 
Council of Deputies of Workingmen and Soldiers, some 
twenty-five hundred in number, and they had adhering to 
them the Petrograd garrison. And then, with the Czar's 
government disposed of, disappearing in a night, there were 
left in Russia the heads of the executive department who 
controlled the machinery of administration, and the Council 
of Deputies of Workingmen and Soldiers, who had the con- 
trol and leadership of the Petrograd garrison, that is to say, 
the physical force, in their control. The provisional Council 
of Ministers appointed by the Duma had the machinery of 
government, but they had no power to execute their decrees. 
The Council of Deputies of Workingmen and Soldiers, a 
purely voluntary body, had the physical power as they had 
the garrison with them, but they had no competence for 
government, and they did not undertake to carry on govern- 
ment; and so the country stood with no effective govern- 
ment, a government of moral suasion alone; and that vast 
people of one hundred and eighty million, covering one-sixth 
of the habitable globe, looked about in bewilderment and con- 
fusion, and began to discuss their rights, their powers and 
duties; began to rejoice in the new freedom from oppression. 
Four months ago, when the Diplomatic Mission from the 
United States landed at Vladivostock, there were thousands 
of committees which had been formed in every town and in 
every city, and almost every village, in every garrison and 
camp and division and regiment of the great Russian army. 
These thousands of committees undertook to regulate their 
local affairs. They had no relation to each other, and they 
had no subordination to any general government. Seventy- 
five per cent of the people could not read and write. With a 



172 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

very few exceptions, they had no knowledge and no experi- 
ence in self-government. They had no institutions through 
which to govern, and we all know there can be no self- 
government except through institutions of government. Yet 
in that extraordinary condition there was as perfect order in 
Russia as existed in the United States. 

In Petrograd not a policeman was to be found; the old 
police of the bureaucracy had been chased away, gone into 
hiding, or into exile; and no police had taken their place. 
But there was no time during that period when a young 
woman could not have walked from one end of Petrograd to 
the other at any hour of the day or night in perfect safety. 

Then they addressed themselves to the novel subject of 
forming a government to take the place of the old autocracy. 
There were two elements, the socialists, who, of course, 
desired a government of socialism, and the great body of the 
Russian people, most of them land-owning peasants, with a 
small proportion of business men and a small proportion of 
large land-owners; and these two elements stood and looked 
at each other in doubt as to what they should do, wholly 
inexperienced ; and they began to take the first steps towards 
the creation of government. 

The socialists had two wings — the moderate and reason- 
able socialists of the American type, the same kind who run a 
candidate for President every four years now, with cheerful 
hope; and the extreme socialists of the German type, who 
demanded immediate and full application of the theory of 
socialism. They proposed that there should be an immediate 
destruction of all capital. They proposed to destroy the 
industrial organization of Russia; and they proposed to 
destroy the nationalism of Russia in the expectation of sub- 
stituting for nationalism throughout the world the " Uni- 
versal Brotherhood of the Proletariat " which should imme- 
diately usher in the millenium. Their idea was that they 



SYMPATHY WITH RUSSIA 173 

would have no national government in Russia, and they 
would immediately destroy the national governments of the 
United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and incidentally 
Germany. The key of all that went on in Russia through 
months was the desire to separate the modern and reasonable 
socialists, who sought to obtain the fruition of their theories 
through building up national democracies, from the extreme 
German type of socialists who sought immediately to apply 
their wild and vague theory. 

Then there came a tremendous German propaganda. 
Thousands of German agents came across the border after 
the revolution; and they spent money like water, no one can 
tell how much they spent. They stirred up all the German 
sympathizers in Russia. They purchased newspapers, 
established newspapers, and printed other literature; they 
went up and down the front, talking to the soldiers in the 
trenches and in the reserve camps. They said to the Russian 
soldier, " Why do you fight ? This was the Czar's war. The 
Czar is gone now. Why do you keep on fighting ? " They said 
also to them, " Why do you kill us ? We are your friends. 
Why do you want to get killed yourselves ? It is very 
unpleasant. You had better go home and take part in the 
division of the land. All the land in Russia is to be divided, 
and if you do not hurry home, you will be left." And those 
millions of men who did not read were talked to in this way, 
and when it was said, this was not their war, they were com- 
pelled to realize that it was not. Nobody had told them what 
the war was about; they had never been instructed about it; 
they had no knowledge of the great issues involved; and 
accordingly, by the millions, the Russians left the trenches 
and the camps and wandered all over the country, finding 
their way back to their homes; and all through the Russian 
army the idea ran that peace had come, and there was no 
further occasion for war. And so that government stood 



174 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

without any power in the government to enforce a decree, 
with an army wearied of war, as all Europe is wearied of war 
today, tired of sacrifice and suffering, glad to have the killing 
and maiming come to an end; glad that no more lives were 
to be added to the millions who had been lost in Russia; 
and that peace and order were to reign. 

Discipline in the army, of course, then disappeared. The 
oflScers who had been severe in their treatment of the soldiers 
were dismissed and sent away, the soldiers' committees took 
charge, and with Germany at the gates a condition existed 
in which the successful prosecution of war was impossible. 
There was no government which had the power to enforce 
law. Indeed, the law had lost its sanction as law; it had 
died with the Czar. It was not like our law, which is made 
by the people — it was made by the Czar, and the Czar had 
gone, and his word had no further authority. There was no 
law, no power. The great body of the people, with little or no 
understanding of the great questions confronting them, 
delighted in the sense of freedom; but they respected each 
other's rights, and they maintained order. The German 
agents made common cause with the extreme and unrea- 
sonable socialists, and to them were added those unknown 
secret agents of the bureaucratic government. And the 
extreme wing of violent destructive socialism, which corre- 
sponds to the I. W. W. in our own country, and the agents of 
the old secret police and the agents of Germany, made com- 
mon cause in attempting to destroy all industry, all property, 
all capital and all effectiveness of government in Russia. 

Now, in that condition a few men — very few at first — 
stood up and spurned the offer of a separate peace from Ger- 
many. They said, "We will not stain our country by this 
disgraceful conduct. We will maintain the war; we will 
fight for the liberty which we have newly won; we will begin 
the career of a new democracy of Russia, with faith and 



SYMPATHY WITH RUSSIA 175 

honor. We will save the people of Russia from the disgrace 
which these men seek to put upon it." 

They were the provisional government of Russia. Wisely, 
patiently, they separated the reasonable socialists from the 
extremists. They finally won them over, and when they 
had won them over, they had won the Petrograd garrison 
also. And when they had won the Petrograd garrison, with 
the moderate socialists, they were ready to govern. 

I got up one morning in the quarters of the Diplomatic 
Mission, in the Winter Palace. We had on one side of us, 
occupying a part of that vast pile, a great military hospital 
filled with wounded. On the other side, in the rooms which 
had been used as a prison for the palace, there were confined 
some eighty anarchists who had just been arrested the night 
before. Across the way were the barracks of the most 
mutinous regiment of the Petrograd garrison. I looked out 
of the window into the court-yard of the palace, and there I 
saw the court-yard filled with Cossacks, who were standing 
and sitting about, sharpening their swords, and I said, " The 
time has come when the government of Russia can begin to 
govern." And it had. The Cossacks went out into the 
streets of Petrograd, and from that time on the flag of 
destructive revolutionism, the black flag of the men who 
sought to destroy Russia, has been driven from those streets. 

Many disturbing things have been reported in our news- 
papers of events in Russia, happening during the past two 
months. But the changes in the government of Russia which 
took place after our Mission left, until its return home, were 
the changes which were marked out, and explained to me, 
before we left. What will happen in the future, of course, 
no one can tell. 

What was represented as being another revolution, what 
was represented as being the surrender of the government to 
turbulent forces, was but the accomplishment of a settled 



176 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

purpose long ago determined upon and explained to me before 
we left — the purpose to put Kerensky in the place he now 
holds, with the power to restore order. 

Through his extraordinary power — and he has extraor- 
dinary power, this young man in the thirties, with amazing 
intensity, with power to put every drop of blood in his body 
into his words when he reaches out and seizes upon the souls 
of his audience, and with a devotion to his country, a flaming 
enthusiasm for liberty and order never surpassed in our 
day — Kerensky set out upon the tremendous task of res- 
toring at once the power of a civil government to maintain 
order in Russia and restore the morale of the Russian army. 

He has wise and skillful and able men with him, men who 
joined in putting him at the head of the government, not 
seeking their own elevation, not seeking their own aggran- 
dizement, but seeking to put at the head of the government 
the man whom they recognized as the most fit man to do the 
great work that had to be done. 

He has, in a great measure, restored the morale of Russia's 
army, and that army which from the Baltic to the Black Sea 
had agreed that there was no more fighting to do, is now 
fighting along that line, and is now dying in the trenches 
along that line. Ninety-five per cent of them have gone back 
to the terrible task of maintaining the integrity of their 
country against the advance of the Germans. 

Here and there is a soft spot, here and there is a place where 
German corruption and German influence have won over an 
oflficer or a regiment, and when that soft spot is touched — 
and the Germans know where it is — there is a disaster, but 
still they fight on. 

The newspapers are filled with accounts of disputes, of 
political conflict, but how is it possible for a nation which 
began in the beginning with no government at all, with no 
institutions, with no habits of thought or action adapted to 



SYMPATHY WITH RUSSIA 177 

the exercise of the powers of government, how is it possible 
for them to avoid disputes and controversies ? When you 
read in the newspapers about what happens in Russia, I beg 
you to remember how the people of Europe looked upon the 
condition of America for many a long year after the peace 
that ended the American Revolution. How certain they 
were that the new experiment in democracy was a failure. 
How they sneered and laughed at the presumptuous farm- 
ers who sought to govern themselves. I beg you to remember 
what Europe thought of the condition in America in those 
long dark years of civil war, when it was believed that the 
American experiment had failed at last. 

I beg you to consider if a true statement were made and 
communicated by cable to Russia, of all that has been 
happening in these United States during the past four 
months, of the riots, of the pacifist meetings, of the seditious 
press, of the unblushing effrontery of treason throughout 
this land, what effect that would have upon Russia. I beg 
you to consider whether if that were sent over to Russia, 
it would not seem worse to the Russians than the story 
which comes to us from Russia today. 

A terrible task they have undertaken. Often their hearts 
must faint; often it must seem as if they were fighting to 
accomplish the impossible; but they have one thing upon 
which they can rely, that is the character of the people of 
Russia. WTiy was it that when no police and no government 
was there, order was maintained in Russia ? It was because 
the Russian people have in the highest degree the qualities 
that are necessary to successful seH-government. 

They have self-control. They are naturally law-abiding. 
They have natural consideration for the feelings and the 
interests of others. They have a natural sense of justice. 
They would not willingly do injustice to anyone in the world; 
and their justice is enlarged and ennobled by beautiful 



178 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

charity. They are the kindest people towards the unfortu- 
nate and the erring that I know of. With all that, they have 
persistence and rugged continuance of purpose, and they 
have an extraordinary capacity for concerted action which 
has been shown in their local self-government. In their vil- 
lage communities they long have managed their own affairs 
in their little town meetings with the mayor presiding, where 
they would discuss and take the will of the majority, and 
everybody agreed to it. They have done the same in their 
zemstvos, and they have gone further. This war was not well 
carried on by the old regime, and in order to carry it on, the 
Russian people rose and formed combinations of their own 
zemstvos into an all-Russian union of zemstvos. They 
formed special war munition committees; and it was these 
bodies of zemstvos and the war munitions committees that 
kept the armies going after the old Russian regime had been 
swept aside. Thus they have carried their self-government 
into the national field until they have attained a condition 
which approaches national self-government. In their busi- 
ness affairs they show self-government. I went in Moscow, 
to the Narodny Bank, or the People's Bank, and saw the 
corporation employees gathered together, and speeches were 
made to and fro, and among others, a young man arose and 
said he would like to tell about the flax industry in Russia. 
He said that the flax people, great numbers of them, had 
united and formed a union for the purpose of marketing their 
flax and purchasing their necessary supplies, and they had 
succeeded in that, and they were carrying on their business, 
by the agencies that they created at a cost not exceeding two 
and a half per cent. Now, probably the majority of them 
were unable to read and write. Those people, those peasants, 
with those qualities, are competent to create and maintain a 
self-government. That is the test. If people have the 
character of a self-governing people, they will win out in 



SYMPATHY WITH RUSSIA 179 

self-government. If they have not that character of self- 
government, then all the powers on earth will not make them 
a self-governing people. Above all this they have a noble 
idealism. They are capable of entertaining conceptions of 
something above the ordinary affairs of every-day life. They 
are capable not merely of forming and maintaining self-gov- 
ernment, but they are capable of doing great things for the 
betterment of mankind and the advancement of liberty. 

To preserve the liberty of those people, this little band of 
men striving to restore the morale of the Russian army, 
trying to teach those poor peasants in the army who do not 
read and write, teach them why they must be ready to sacri- 
fice their lives; trying to show them that their liberty 
requires still further sacrifices from them; this little band of 
men agonizing with their fellow-countrymen, struggling with 
this mighty task, surely should have the sympathy and the 
aid of the people of this republic, who enjoy freedom and 
prosperity and opportunity through the hard sacrifices our 
fathers made. 

I am glad to have gone to Russia because it has put into 
my heart a sympathy for those struggling people which makes 
me a better man. This war has done many things already. 
I know that for one battered old campaigner who has been 
through the rude buffets of life for half a century, it has dis- 
solved that hardness of the heart which brings indifference 
to the dreams of youth. It has brought sympathy, ennobling 
sympathy, to us all. Sympathy for poor, struggling, bleed- 
ing Russia. Sympathy for little Belgium, like a ravished 
child trodden down by brutal and bestial force. Sympathy 
for the noble patriotism and lofty character of beautiful 
France. Sympathy for the patriotism that leads the Italians 
to the mountain summits for the recovery of Italia Irredenta. 
Sympathy for that great race which through a thousand 
years of stubborn and rugged individual independence has 



180 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

developed the liberty we now enjoy. And for the mild and 
complacent surface kindliness which we once professed for 
all the world, there has come a deep and real sympathy of the 
heart with all these nations that have become our allies ! We 
are growing real instead of superficial. We are substituting 
reality for pretense. 

But there is something more than mere sympathy that this 
war has already brought. We have been talking in this 
country of free lives and liberty and justice, of freedom and 
opportunity, of American institutions, of the mission of 
democracy, about the ideals of our fathers, and we have been 
talking from the teeth outward. We have not felt it. I will 
not say we were dead in trespasses and sins; but we were 
dead or sleeping in wealth and ease and comfort. The brutal 
power of Germany, which has repudiated everything that 
civilization has accomplished for the century past, which has 
repudiated the law of morals and declared the German state 
to be superior to all morality; which has repudiated the law 
of humanity, and has without quavering committed the 
most dreadful outrages in order that she might have the 
benefit of inspiring terror in the world, the brutal power of 
Germany has revealed at last to our comfort-loving people 
the unreality of our lives, and has shown, bare and naked, the 
dreadful, horrid truth of human nature unrelieved by morals 
or religion or humanity. It has shown to us as we never 
realized before, what liberty and justice, what humanity and 
compassion, what morality and right, really are. 

We need not talk about the whys and wherefores of the 
war. It is here and the issue is drawn so clearly that a child 
could see. It is for the American people to determine 
whether they have the manhood to maintain the liberty that 
their fathers gained for them through sacrifice; the manhood 
to maintain the justice upon which we have prided our- 
selves; the manhood to defend those institutions of liberty 



SYMPATHY WITH RUSSIA 181 

and justice which we would hand down to our children; or 
whether we shall submit and abandon them all. 

The issue is clear and distinct between the maintenance of 
the American republic, free and independent; American 
justice to the rich and poor alike; American opportunity for 
the boy and the girl; and being so craven that we will leave 
our children to be subjected to the power of evil that ravished 
Belgium and Servia. Whether falsehood and faithlessness 
and cynical contempt for morals, and cold-blooded disregard 
of humanity, and utter absence of mercy and compassion 
and denial of human right, shall be the portion of our children, 
or whether the liberty which our fathers won shall be handed 
down to them by the manhood of our fathers' sons and the 
love of our children's fathers. 

Ah ! It has come not too soon. It was at the eleventh hour 
that we came into the vineyard. The great opportunity of 
the American people was slipping away before they could 
grasp it — the opportunity to make themselves into the 
image of our fathers. The opportunity is to die, if need be, 
and to give our dearest ones to death, that our country may 
live, that its liberty may live, that its justice may endure, 
that its opportunity for those who toil and endure, may 
continue. We have grasped the opportunity for that sacri- 
fice and suffering through which we shall find our souls 
again. 

I thought as I listened today to the sad story of Edith 
Cavell, that it could not be that an infinite God would per- 
mit such a dreadful injustice to overcome the world. I do 
not know. Wecannot measure the providences of God; but 
I have faith in the power of God's people, and God's people 
are the democracies of the earth. They are not the czars or 
the kaisers or the emperors or the autocrats or the aristoc- 
racies of the earth; they are the democracies of the earth. 
And I have faith in the power of democracy triumphant. 



182 MISSION TO RUSSIA 

I believe that struggling Russia and down-trodden Belgium 
and awakened England and enduring France and aspiring 
Italy and renewed America, fighting in God's name for the 
principles of His religion, for that compassion, that morality, 
that justice, which Christ preached upon earth, will over- 
come the forces of a dark and wicked past, and bring the 
world into a new day of brighter light and happier life. And 
in that faith, I live — with all the sorrows, the disappoint- 
ments and the loss — I live a prouder American than I have 
ever been before. 



POLITICAL ADDRESSES 



.^^'< 






THE CAMPAIGN OF 1904 

ADDRESS AT BUFFALO, NEW YORK, OCTOBER 22, 1904 

In the Presidential campaign and the intermediate congressional elections from 
1900 to 1916, during which period Mr. Root served as Secretary of War and Secre- 
tary of State in the Cabinets of Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, and as United 
States Senator from New York, he was one of the chief authoritative spokesmen of 
the Republican Party. His speech at Canton, Ohio, on October 24, 1900, in which 
he made the Administration's reply to the attacks of the opposition upon the Repub- 
lican policy for the Presidential campaign of that year, appears at page 27 of the 
volume entitled " The Military and Colonial Policy of the United States " in this 
series.^ Mr. Root's speech as temporary chairman of the Republican National 
Convention at Chicago, June 21, 1904, in which he sounded the keynote for the 
Roosevelt campaign, is printed at page 99 of the same volume. His address as 
chairman of the New York Republican Convention, February 15, 1916, is for the 
most part published tmder the title " Foreign Affairs 1913-16," in the volume 
entitled " Addresses on International Subjects." ^ Mr. Root delivered many political 
addresses in different parts of the country during these years and in subsequent 
campaigns, and one speech for each other campaign is preserved in this voliune. 
These speeches epitomize the political history of the United States during the entire 
period from the Republican point of view, and are thus a permanent contribution to 
the history of the party and of the United States. 

IT cannot be denied that this presidential campaign is of 
inferior interest to many which have preceded it. The 
reason is plain. The opposition to the present Administration 
has presented no real issues to the country for discussion. 

The Democratic party adheres to its old position in favor 
of the free coinage of silver. The St. Louis convention refused 
not only to abandon the position, but even to concede that it 
had been settled against them. 

The Democratic party adheres to its old position that pro- 
tection is robbery and that tariff should be for revenue only. 
Its candidate says in substance that the business interests 
of the country need not apprehend injury from this source, 
because there is a Republican Senate which will prevent 

1 Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1916. 

185 



186 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

Democratic tariff ideas from receiving effect during the 
next Administration. Tariff discussion therefore would be 
academic. 

The Democratic party demands still further legislation 
against trusts and monopolies, without telling what it should 
be; but its candidate says that the common law affords a 
complete remedy, and, in substance, that other and different 
laws are not needed. That appears to be an issue in the 
Democratic party — not between it and the Republicans. 
/ The Democratic party and the candidate insist that we 
acquired wrongfully the title to the Panama Canal; but it is 
impossible to treat that assertion seriously when in the same 
breath they declare that we should keep the title and proceed 
to build the canal without delay. 

Both the party and the candidate say that it is imperialism 
for us to hold the Philippines. But the candidate truly says: 

The accidents of war brought the Philippines into our possession, and 
we are not at Uberty to disregard the responsibility which thus came to us, 
but that responsibihty will be best subserved by preparing the islands as 
rapidly as possible for self-government and giving to them the assurances 
that it will come as soon as they are reasonably prepared for it. 

That is precisely what we are doing, and precisely those 
assurances have been given. 

The only difference between us is that the Democratic 
party and candidate insist that we should make a promise to 
the Filipinos that when they are fit for self-government, 
whether that be ten years or fifty years hence, the United 
States will give them full independence, instead of leaving it 
for the people of the United States and the people of the 
Philippine Islands at that time to say whether full and abso- 
lute independence, or some modified relation insuring at 
once self-government and the stability and protection of that 
government will be best for their interest and ours. That 
question is not entitled to very much discussion now. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1904 187 

The course of development of the Philippine people may- 
work out an answer to that question, or when the time for 
action comes it may prove to be complicated and difficult of 
solution; in any event it must be solved when the time 
comes, with reference to conditions in the Philippines and 
the Orient generally, which it is impossible to foresee now. 
Any attempt on our part to settle now the specific details of 
their action, in ignorance of those conditions would be both 
foolish and futile. Both parties agree that the people of the 
Philippine Islands are to have self-government as rapidly as 
they become fitted for it. That is the declared policy of the 
United States. Both parties are agreed that our present duty 
is to promote the attainment of capacity for self-government 
among the Filipinos, who are as yet far from possessing it. 
That duty we are performing, and overwhelming and indis- 
putable testimony comes from the Philippine Islands that 
we are performing it well. Neither party disputes that, pend- 
ing the performance of that duty at least, American sover- 
eignty in the Philippines is to be maintained. The precise 
way in which that self-government, when attained, shall be 
made most effective, stable and secure against internal and 
external foes is not a present issue, and cannot be made a y 
present issue before the American people. 

I know of nothing more useful, more inspiring, more 
fraught with cheerful hope for the future of free government 
than the universal and intelligent discussion of great ques- 
tions of public policy by the American people during a presi- 
dential campaign. That is the process which makes the 
people competent, and ever more competent, to govern 
justly and wisely. I have no sympathy with those who 
deplore the frequency of presidential elections and the 
interruption to business which they produce. The loss is 
overbalanced a hundred fold by the strengthening of the 
basis of all business and of all property, which under popular 



188 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

government rest upon public intelligence and public under- 
standing of political questions. 

This year we have had httle of such discussion. The 
Democratic attack has degenerated into a mere fusillade of 
fault-finding. Charges of extravagance without specifica- 
tions, charges of disregard of the Constitution with trivial 
specifications having just enough substance for lawyers to 
base an argument upon, half-truths, small lies about the 
chairman of the Republican National Committee and about 
the President, spurious interviews between the President and 
trust magnates, garbled extracts from the President's writ- 
ings, false statements made out of whole cloth, about what 
the President has said or written about farmers and about 
labor questions — these are the hand grenades of the Demo- 
cratic onset. Just as President McKinley was called a 
moUusk by these same people because his manner was kind 
and gentle and reserved, so President Roosevelt is called 
violent and dictatorial because his manner is vigorous and 
graphic. When McKinley was President, Andrew Jackson 
was regarded by the Democracy as the true type. Now that 
Roosevelt is President, the " mature, experienced and un- 
dramatic " Buchanan is held up for imitation. Heaven save 
the mark! Do they want the country carried away bodily 
while the President sleeps ? Ignoring all the great achieve- 
ments of the Republican administration; ignoring pros- 
perity and laws enforced at home, peace and honor and 
good-will abroad, great measures of policy carried to suc- 
cessful conclusion, honest and effective government; ignoring 
aU these, the public is invited to consider in how many 
little ways of form and manner and method the Republican 
administration has departed from a standard of ideal 
perfection. 

We have not been perfect; we are all erring mortals, and 
the Republicans who have been conducting the government 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1904 189 

at Washington during the last few years have doubtless been 
imperfect enough to make it possible for their friends to feel 
affection for them. But political administrations are not to 
be compared with ideal standards of perfection. We are to be 
compared with the Democratic party. Government in this 
country, as in all English-speaking countries, is conducted by 
parties. The combined and concurrent action of many men 
in legislative and executive office uniting to work out prob- 
lems of state along the line of principles upon which they 
agree is essential to the conduct of representative govern- 
ment. What evidence has the Democratic party given of its 
fitness to govern ? 

There was a Democratic party before the great upheaval 
and political realignment of the Civil War, which had political 
principles — a party that believed in a strict construction of 
the Constitution and the confinement of national power with- 
in the narrowest possible limits. It opposed and destroyed 
the national bank of the United States ; it denied the right of 
Congress to appropriate moneys for internal improvements, 
or to enact protective tariffs, or to interfere with the extension 
of slavery, because it believed that the Constitution granted 
no power to do those things. Dominated by the master 
minds of the South, it was vigorous, able and competent to 
govern. It annexed Louisiana; it seized upon Florida; it 
made war upon Mexico; it enforced the Fugitive Slave law; 
with fire and sword it carried slavery across Missouri on 
to the virgin soil of Kansas and Nebraska. And, when the 
awakened conscience of the North had decreed that its rule 
should end, with splendid audacity it welcomed the ruin of 
the Union which it had so long governed. 

Since the Civil War there has been no such Democratic 
party. There has been an opposition, organized under the 
name of the Democratic party. It has been composed of 
incoherent and warring factions, agreeing upon no principle. 



190 POLITICAL ADDRESSES. 

faithful to no principle, believing in no principle, and held 
together solely by a desire to turn the Republican party out 
of office and secure the offices in its place. There is nothing 
in common between the old-fashioned gold standard business 
men of the East who call themselves Democrats and the 
populistic followers of Mr. Bryan in the West who call them- 
selves Democrats, while the representatives of the South, 
elected without reference to any national issue, but with sole 
reference to the questions arising from the presence there of 
the black race, agree some of them with Republican doctrines, 
and some with ancient Democratic doctrines, and some with 
new Populistic doctrines. For forty years the controlling 
motive which has shaped Democratic platforms has been the 
desire to catch the public fancy of the moment, and their 
only consistent rule of action has been to affirm what 
Republicans deny and deny what Republicans affirm. 

What do they really believe now as to the strict limitations 
of the Constitution upon the powers of the Federal Govern- 
ment ? Listen to this declaration, repeated in Democratic 
platform after platform: 

Resolved, That the Constitution does not confer upon the general 
Government the power to commence and carry on a general system of 
internal improvements. 

Now read the Democratic platform of 1892: 

The Federal Government should care for and improve the Mississippi 
River and other great waterways of the Republic, so as to secure for the 
interior states easy and cheap transportation to the tidewater. 

The platform of 1900: 

We favor an intelligent system of improving the arid lands of the West, 
storing the waters for purposes of irrigation, and the holding of such lands 
for actual settlers. 

And the platform of 1904: 

We favor liberal appropriations for the care and improvement of the 
waterways of the coimtry. When any waterway, like the Mississippi 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1904 191 

River, is of sufficient importance to demand special aid of the government, 
such aid should be extended, with a definite plan of continuous work until 
permanent improvement is secured. 

We oppose the Republican policy of starving home development in 
order to feed the greed for conquest and the appetite for national prestige 
and display of strength. 

We congratulate our Western citizens upon the passing of the measure 
known as the Newlands Irrigation act, for irrigation and reclamation of the 
arid lands of the West. . . . 

We call attention to this great Democratic measure, broad and com- 
prehensive as it is, working automatically throughout all time without 
further action of Congress. . . . 

Read the platform of 1896 : 

We demand the enlargement of the powers of the Interstate Commerce 
Commission. 

Read the platform of 1904: 

We demand a strict enforcement of existing civil and criminal statutes 
against all such trusts, combinations and monopolies; and we demand the 
enactment of such fiu-ther legislation as may be necessary to effectually 
suppress them. 

Read the New York state platform of 1902: 

We advocate the government ownership of the anthracite coaJ mines by 
right of eminent domain with just compensation to the owners. Ninety 
per cent of the anthracite coal mines of the world being in the state of 
Pennsylvania, national ownership can be but in the interest of the whole 
people. 

Is it not plain that to get votes in the Mississippi Valley, to 
get votes in the states embracing the arid lands of the West, 
to get votes among the people excited against great combina- 
tions of capital, and among the people who were suffering for 
want of coal, cut off by the strike in the anthracite regions, 
the construction of the Constitution which the Democratic 
party still professes in high-sounding general phrases, has 
been thrown to the winds ? 

What does the Democratic party really believe as to the 
tariff ? Read the old declaration of 1856: 



192 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

The time has come for the people of the United States to declare them- 
selves in favor of free seas and progressive free trade throughout the world, 
and, by solemn manifestations, to place their moral influence at the side of 
their successful example. 

Read the platform of 1872: 

Recognizing that there are in our midst honest but irreconcilable dif- 
ferences of opinion with regard to the respective systems of protection and 
free trade, we remit the discussion of the subject to the people in their 
Congressional districts, and to the decision of the Congress thereon, 
wholly free from executive interference or dictation. 

Tariff of 1880: 

A tariff for revenue only. 

Platform of 1884: 

The Democratic party is pledged to revise the tariff in a spirit of fairness 
to all interests. But, in making the reduction in taxes, it is not proposed 
to injure any domestic industries, but rather to promote their healthy 
growth. . . . The necessary reduction in taxation can and must be ef- 
fected without depriving American labor of the ability to compete success- 
fully with foreign labor, and without imposing lower rates of duty than 
will be ample to cover any increased cost of production which may exist 
in consequence of the higher rate of wages prevailing in this country. 

That is sound protection doctrine. Platform of 1888: 

A fair and careful revision of our tax laws, with due allowance for the 
difference between the wages of American and foreign labor. 

Platform of 1892: 

We denounce Republican protection as a fraud, a robbery of the great 
majority of the American people for the benefit of the few. We declare it 
to be a fundamental principle of the Democratic party that the Federal 
Government has no constitutional power to impose and coUect tariff duties, 
except for the pm-poses of revenue only. 

Platform of 1904: 

We denounce protectionism as a robbery of the many to enrich the few. 

Here we have the votes of the American people asked for 
the Democratic party upon the ground that it is in favor of 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1904 193 

free trade, upon the ground that the party takes no position 

whatever on the subject, upon the ground that the party 

will give adequate protection by levying duties always equal 

to the difference between the wages at home and abroad, upon 

the ground that protection is unconstitutional, and upon the 

ground that protection is robbery. 

What does the Democratic party really believe upon the 

question of reciprocity ? Under the McKinley tariff law of 

1890, reciprocity treaties were made by President Harrison 

with Brazil, Nicaragua, Honduras, San Domingo; with 

Great Britain, covering British Guiana and the West Indies, 

and with Spain, covering Porto Rico and Cuba. Under those 

treaties in four years our exports to those countries increased 

twenty-six per cent, and our imports from them increased 

twenty-eight per cent, while during the same period our 

exports to other countries increased only three per cent, and 

our imports from them decreased twenty-seven per cent. 

This being an established Republican poHcy, the Democratic 

platform of 1892 declared: 

Trade intercliange on the basis of reciprocal advantages to the countries 
participating is a time-honored doctrine of the Democratic faith, but we 
denounce the sham reciprocity which juggles with the people's desire for 
enlarged foreign markets and freer exchanges by pretending to establish 
closer trade relations for a country whose articles of export are almost 
exclusively agricultural products with other countries that are also 
agricultural. 

And, accordingly, after coming into power after the election 
of 1892, the Democratic party proceeded to repeal the law, 
and put an end to all the reciprocity treaties. The Demo- 
cratic campaign book of 1902 declared: 

Reciprocity is based on the same false theories as is protection, and, 
like protection, is a sham and humbug, and to most people has been and 
will ever continue to be a delusion and a snare. 

Upon the passage of the bill which gave effect to the 
reciprocity treaty with Cuba in December, 1903, every vote 



194 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

cast against the treaty in either House was Democratic, and 

a majority of the Democrats in the Senate voted against it. 

Now, read the Democratic platform of 1904: 

We favor liberal trade arrangements with Canada and with peoples of 
other countries where they can be entered into with benefit to American 
agriculture, manufactures, mining, or commerce. 

The Democratic party, which regards reciprocity treaties 
with agricultural countries as a sham, of course does not 
regard Canada as an agricultural country! Read also the 
words of the Democratic candidate for the Presidency in his 
letter of acceptance: 

The persistent refusal of the Republican majority in the Federal Senate 
to ratify the reciprocity treaties enacted in pursuance of the policies advo- 
cated alike by Mr. Blaine and Mr. McKinley and expressly sanctioned by 
the fourth section of the Dingley act, is a remarkable exhibition of bad 
faith. 

There is here absolutely no guiding principle of Democratic 
action, and no sincerity of Democratic profession. When 
the Republican party makes reciprocity treaties, the Demo- 
cratic party is opposed to reciprocity; when the Repubhcan 
party does not make reciprocity treaties, the Democratic 
party is in favor of reciprocity. 

What does it really believe as to the Isthmian Canal ? 

Listen to the declaration of the Democratic party platform 

of 1856: 

Resolved, That the great highway which nature, as well as the assent 
of the states most immediately interested in its maintenance, has marked 
out for a free communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans 
constitutes one of the most important achievements reahzed by the spirit 
of modern times, and the unconquerable energy of our people. That result 
should be secured by a timely and eflficient exertion of the control which we 
have the right to claim over it, and no power on earth should be suffered 
to impede or clog its progress by any interference with the relations it may 
suit our poHcy to establish between our government and the governments 
of the states within whose dominions it lies. We can, imder no circum- 
stances, surrender our preponderance in the adjustment of all questions 
arising out of it. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1904 195 

That was the platform on which was elected " the mature, 

experienced and undramatic Buchanan." Now read the 

Democratic platform of 1904, after the canal treaty had been 

made with the republic of Panama: 

The Democracy, when intrusted with power, will construct the Panama 
Canal speedily, honestly and economically, thereby giving to our people 
what Democrats have always contended for — a great interoceanic canal. 

Does it really believe that the title which it proposes to 
keep is bad, and that the policy declared in the platform of 
1856 is wrong ? Does the Democratic party sincerely believe 
that it is keeping the pledge of its platform of 1872: 

We recognize the equahty of all men before the law, and hold that it is 
the duty of government in its dealings with the people to mete out equal 
and exact justice to all, of whatever nativity, race, color, or persuasion, 
religious or political. 

We pledge ourselves to maintain the union of these states, emancipa- 
tion and enfranchisement, and oppose any reopening of the questions 
settled by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the 
Constitution. 

Upon two great questions the majority of the Democratic 
party has been sincere, and upon both of them we are asked 
to drop the veil of oblivion. It was in favor of the extension 
of slavery; it was opposed to the continuance of the war for 
the Union. Its platform of 1864, which declared the war to 
be a failure and demanded its immediate cessation, was an 
appeal to the weariness and discouragement of our people 
under their great burdens, and was intended to break down 
the administration of Lincoln and bring about disunion. Four 
years later it declared in its platform of 1868 that the ques- 
tion of slavery and secession was settled for all time to come, 
never to be renewed or reagitated. 

The Democratic party has been sincere also in its advocacy 
of dishonest money and debased currency. In its platform of 
1868 it declared for the payment of the public debt in green- 
backs, then irredeemable and at an enormous discount. 



196 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

That was repudiation. In 1876 it demanded the repeal of the 
act for the resumption of specie payments, passed by a 
Repubhcan Congress in January, 1875. In 1896 it demanded 
the free coinage of silver. In 1900 it repeated that demand 
and denounced the currency bill passed by the Fifty-sixth 
Congress to establish the gold standard. In 1904 it refused to 
abandon its position, and rejected from its platform the state- 
ment that the question of the standard was settled. Now we 
are asked to forget the record, because the Democratic 
candidate says the gold standard is settled. 

But it is only by a party's record that we can know what 
confidence to place in its present professions and its present 
promises; and we learn from the record of the Democratic 
party that expediency, not conviction, the attraction of 
votes, not the impulse of principle, determine what the 
Democratic party shall profess and promise and what it 
shall omit from its declarations. Insincerity is its prevailing 
characteristic. There are no party beliefs, there is no party 
conscience, there is no continuity of purpose, or striving for 
consistency, or sense of obligation to past declarations. What 
the party would do if coming into power it is impossible to 
learn from its past. That would depend upon what individ- 
uals happened from time to time to be thrown to the surface 
in the struggle for oflSce. A generation of attempts to pull 
down and destroy Republican administration upon ever 
changing and shifting grounds has left the so-called party 
without the constructive faculty or the capacity to govern. 

Once since the Civil War the Democratic party has had 
the opportunity to show by practical test what it was. In the 
second administration of Mr. Cleveland the Presidency and 
both Houses of Congress were Democratic. During that 
administration the party demonstrated conclusively two 
things — one, that it had not the coherence and unity of 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1904 197 

sentiment to make intelligent governmental action possible; 
the other, that the worst element of the party is the element 
that is sure to control. 

Widely as some of us differ from Mr. Cleveland politically, 
we can recognize the admirable qualities which made his 
career so distinguished. His courage, his sturdy integrity, 
his strong sense, his sincere conviction, his former experience 
in the Presidency, his universal popularity among his party at 
the time of his second election, all contributed to inaugu- 
rate the Democratic experiment under the most favorable 
conditions. The result was a dismal and ignominious failure. 
Upon the record of that four years every sentiment of 
esteem and admiration for Mr. Cleveland is a condem- 
nation of the Democratic party. The tariff bill framed 
according to Mr. Cleveland's views by the Wilson committee 
was distorted and misshaped by the Democratic majorities 
of Congress until the President declared that it meant perfidy 
and party dishonor, and he refused to put his signature upon 
it. The appointment of a free-trade Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, a free-trade Speaker of the House, a free-trade Ways 
and Means Committee, which followed the election of Mr. 
Cleveland, and the framing and discussion of the Wilson 
Tariff bill were accompanied by widespread disaster, the 
closing of mills and millions of workmen out of employment. 
The government revenues fell off enormously. It was neces- 
sary to borrow money to support the government and to 
maintain the statutory gold reserve. In the fourteen years 
which preceded March 1, 1893, the Republican party had 
extinguished the public debt to the extent of $1,881,367,873; 
during the second administration of Mr. Cleveland the 
Democratic party increased the debt by $262,000,000. I 
know nothing more pathetic in the history of American legis- 
lation than the earnest appeals of Mr. Cleveland in his 



198 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

messages to Congress during the winter and spring of 1895 
for legislative action to enable him more readily to meet the 
exigency which confronted his administration. 

The Democratic Congress turned a deaf ear to his appeals. 
The very virtues for which we admire Mr. Cleveland sepa- 
rated him from his party in the Capitol. 

Hatred of Cleveland and all that Cleveland represented 
was the dominant force in Congress. Warring factions un- 
able to agree upon any great public question found a common 
ground in that. The feelings of the Whig party toward John 
Tyler, the feelings of the Republican party toward Andrew 
Johnson, were mild in comparison. The Populist Democrats 
of the West hated him for his conservatism; the intriguing 
Democratic politicians of the East hated him for his incon- 
venient adherence to the principles which he professed. Each 
faction hated all others. Mutual distrust and dislike para- 
lyzed the forces of legislative majorities bound together by 
no ties of common principle. The country drifted through 
years of industrial depression and disaster, of poverty and 
distress, without any effective government until the first 
election of McKinley and a Republican Congress took the 
reins of power from the discordant Democracy and placed 
them in the hands of a party competent to govern. Modern 
Democracy triumphant for once had demonstrated its true 
character. 

The record of those four years has never been discussed 
before the American people, because in the campaign which 
followed, the Democratic party itself repudiated and con- 
demned the record of its own administration. 

What cause is there to believe that it would do better if 
again placed in power ? The arch enemies of Mr. Cleve- 
land and all that he represents in policy and in purpose are 
Senator Gorman in the East and Mr. Bryan in the West. I 
don't know whether Mr. Cleveland would have accepted 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1904 199 

another nomination for the Presidency, but it is common 
knowledge that the bitter opposition of those two men and 
their followers in the St. Louis convention made such a 
nomination impossible. Mr. Gorman today controls the 
Democratic campaign from the party headquarters in New 
York. Mr. Bryan today is furnishing the sole hope of the 
Democratic party in the state of Indiana. 

Differing as widely as ever between themselves, they agree 
upon one thing, and one thing only; that no Democratic 
government shall be controlled by Mr. Cleveland or by 
Mr. Cleveland's friends, or by Mr. Cleveland's policies or 
methods. To them more than to any other Judge Parker 
would owe his election, if he should be elected. 

Is Judge Parker abler and stronger, of higher courage and 
more commanding personality than Grover Cleveland ? Is 
he better informed upon public affairs ? Has he thought more 
deeply upon public questions ? Is his statesmanship broader 
and more genuine ? If not, what hope is there of better things 
with power in Democratic hands ? 

Compare the promise embraced in this Democratic record 
with the certainty of efficient administration demonstrated 
by the performance of the last two administrations. 

The standard that the Democratic platform sets up for 
imitation in the Philippines is what the Republican party has 
done for Cuba, working along broad lines and far-seeing 
policies against the opposition and cavil and aspersions of 
the Democratic party. 

The opportunity to construct the Panama Canal, which 
with cheerful anticipation the Democratic party proposes 
to enjoy, was acquired by Republican statesmanship and 

effectiveness. 

« 

The good of the Filipinos, to whom the Democratic party 
professes such ardent devotion, is being attained under 
RepubKcan administration by a government of which the 



200 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

Archbishop of Manila, upon personal knowledge, makes 
the following statement: 

I was impressed during my jom-neyings by the progress of American 
institutions among the masses of the people, the general happiness, the 
security of persons and property, and the supremacy of order and justice. 
I beUeve that under divine guidance the beneficent rule of America is 
destined ultimately to place the Christian Malay race on a moral and 
political plane that as yet has never been attained by an Oriental people. 
This task that the Americans have assumed they cannot shirk or abandon. 
This work that Governor Taft so auspiciously began and that Governor 
Wright continues must be carried to a triumphant conclusion. 

The " open door " in the Orient, which the Democratic 
platform approved, has been held open by Republican diplo- 
macy, and to that same diplomacy under Republican admin- 
istration is accorded throughout the world an honorable 
leadership among the nations in promoting the peace of 
mankind. To this its effective devotion has been attested 
by the settlement of the Alaskan Boundary dispute, the 
settlement of the Pious Fund controversy with Mexico, the 
peaceful arbitration and settlement of the troubles of Vene- 
zuela, the promotion of the power and dignity of The Hague 
Tribunal, and the preservation of the integrity of China. 

Practical legislation by Congress and effective enforcement 
of the laws against illegal trusts and combinations and secret 
rebates have set RepubHcan performance over against 
Democratic declamation. 

The measure for reclaiming and making habitable the arid 
lands of the West, which is now paraded as a Democratic 
measure, was a vague dream until it was embodied and urged 
in a message of our Republican President, and passed by a 
Republican Congress. 

Rural free delivery of the mails, declared impracticable by 
the last Democratic administration, has relieved the isolation 
of more than twelve millions of dwellers upon the American 
farms. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1904 201 

The sound money basis of our prosperity was established 
by the Republican party against the frantic opposition and 
wild denunciation of the Democracy, as once before a Repub- 
lican President and a Republican Congress had saved the 
national honor from the disgrace of Democratic repudiation. 

A reorganized army, a real militia, active and enthusiastic, 
an enlarged and efficient navy, well equipped coast defenses 
adequate to the protection of our seacoasts, agriculture and 
business promoted, laws enforced and respected, prosperity, 
business activity and confidence at home, respect and honor 
for the American government and the American name 
throughout the world, unclouded peace with all mankind — 
all these testify to the rule of a party whose leaders are able, 
broad minded and public spirited enough to shake off petty 
prejudices, to rise above mean pride of opinion, and to agree 
among themselves upon broad lines of public policy; the 
rule of a party coherent, organized, disciplined for effective 
action; a party with traditions and principles and sincere 
purpose; a party strong, virile, competent to govern; a 
party under the leadership of a President who measures up 
to the full stature of moral and intellectual power which the 
pride and patriotism of Americans demand in an American 
President. 

Into the hands of which party shall the government of our 
ever-growing, ever-developing, ever-progressing country, the 
country of our pride, our dearest hopes and our abiding love, 
be committed ? 



THE DEMAGOGUE IN POLITICS 

ADDRESS OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 
1906, UTICA, NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 1, 1906 

A DEMAGOGUE is one who for selfish ends seeks to 
curry favor with the people or some particular portion 
of them, by pandering to their prejudices or wishes or by 
playing on their ignorance or passions. 

We are witnessing in the state of New York one of those 
tests of popular government which often have come in the 
past and always will come when a skillful demagogue 
attempts to get elected to oflSce by exceeding all other men 
in the denunciation of real evils and in promises to cure them. 
Honest and well-meaning voters, smarting under the effects 
of political or social or business wrongdoing, naturally tend 
to sympathize with the man who expresses their feelings in 
the most forcible and extreme language, and who promises the 
most sweeping measures of reform; and in the excitement 
and heat of public indignation they are sometimes in danger 
of forgetting that he who cries " stop thief " the loudest 
may be merely seeking his own advantage, may be worth- 
less as a leader, may belong to the criminal class himself. 

The enemies of popular government have always asserted 
that the great mass of a people, and particularly the working 
people could not be trusted to reject appeals to passion and 
prejudice and follow the dictates of sober reason, to distin- 
guish between mere words of violent denunciation and 
extravagant promise on the one hand, and proved capacity 
for useful and faithful service on the other, and that their 
suffrage would always go to the most violent and extreme 
agitator. 

SOS 



204 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

The believers in popular government have always an- 
swered that in a country where universal education goes 
with universal suffrage, the great mass of the people, and 
particularly those who are doing honest work, can be 
depended upon to inform themselves carefully and to think 
soberly and clearly about political questions, and that their 
plain, strong, common sense will surely detect and reject the 
self-seeking demagogue, however violent his denunciation of 
wrong and however glowing his promises of redress, and 
approve the genuine man, the competent man, even though 
he may not promise so much or puff himself so much or use 
such violent language. 

I firmly believe that the contention of the friends of popu- 
lar government is right; I believe that the people of this 
country and of this state, under our system of universal 
suffrage and universal education, are sure to come out right 
in the long run. Nevertheless it cannot be doubted that 
many workingmen in this state, good and honest men who 
are entitled to respect and who wish to do the best thing 
possible for their country, are about to strengthen the 
enemies and weaken the friends of popular government all 
over the world by voting for Mr. Hearst, who is just the kind 
of a demagogue that I have described. 

He is indeed an especially dangerous specimen of the 
class, because he is enormously rich and owns newspapers 
of wide circulation, and he can hire many able and active 
men to speak well of him and praise him in print and in 
speech and in private conversation. 

Not only is the cause of popular government in danger of 
suffering injury and discredit from the vote for Mr. Hearst, 
but genuine reform, the real practical redress of the evils 
complained of by the people, is in danger of being weakened 
and brought to naught by this attempt of Mr. Hearst to get 
himseK elected governor of New York. 



THE DEMAGOGUE IN POLITICS 205 

The evils which have come with the enormous increase of 
corporate wealth in recent years are real and serious; there 
have been many outrageous practices which ought to be 
stopped and many wrongdoers who ought to be punished. 
That should be done, not by lynch law but by the intelligent 
and wise action which befits a self-governing people, deter- 
mined always to maintain the rule of law, by reforming the 
laws where they are defective, and enforcing the laws with 
fearless vigor against rich and poor alike, and for the protec- 
tion of rich and poor alike. 

Both of these require a high degree of intelligence, skill, 
and experience; declamation and denunciation and big 
headlines in the newspapers will not do the business. It is 
easy to cry " down with the corporations ", but corporations 
are merely the forms through which the greater part of our 
enormous business is transacted; they are not formed by 
special privileges to a few; they are free to all; anybody can 
form a corporation by signing and filing a paper, just as any- 
body can form a partnership. 

And the great mass of our business people, especially those 
engaged in manufacture, are doing their business through 
corporate form; our enormous manufacturing industry 
could not be carried on in any other way. If you destroy 
corporations, you close your mills and your furnaces, you 
stop the payment of wages, you destroy the purchasing 
power of the wage-workers, you reduce the sales of our mer- 
chants and the markets for farm products. Corporations 
are not bad in themselves, but the managers of some of them 
and of many of the greatest ones have used them as oppor- 
tunities for wrongdoing, if not criminal wrongdoing. 

The thing needed is to cut out the wrongdoing and save 
the business, and these corporations are of so many different 
kinds, engaged in so many kinds of varied and complicated 
business, so intimately connected with all the production and 



206 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

trade and prosperity of the country, that the same kind of 
patient, experienced, and discriminating skill is needed for 
the process that the surgeon needs in cutting out a tumor 
from the human body and saving the hfe of the patient. 

Now, this process of inteUigent and effective redress of 
wrongs is going on; great and substantial progress has been 
made lq it; laws are being re-formed so as to meet the present 
evils; laws are being enforced with vigor and success; male- 
factors are being punished according to law and not against 
law; skill and wisdom and efficiency and honest pm'pose, 
never surpassed in the history of this or any other country, 
have put their hands to the task and are pressing it forward 
with untiring energy. 

The most conspicuous and fit representative of this great 
and beneficent work in this state is Charles E. Hughes. 
There was never occasion to feel more proud of the great 
profession to which Hamilton and Marshall and Webster 
and Lincoln and Tilden belonged, than when through the 
long and weary months of the insurance investigation, with 
patient and untiring industry, with courage, skill, and 
honesty, he followed step by step the clues which led through 
all the complicated affairs of the great companies to the lay- 
ing bare of official wrongdoing. Neither wealth, nor power, 
nor social position, nor political influence turned him aside 
one hair's breadth from his course; nor did any thought of 
himself, any desire for popularity, any taint of self -advertis- 
ing or self-glorification obscure his vision or affect his con- 
duct. He was the skilled and single-mmded instrument of 
inexorable justice. 

When the facts were all uncovered, he arranged them and 
stated them so plainly that a child could understand their 
deep significance, and then wisdom of no common order 
guided his judgment upon the legislative remedies for which 



THE DEMAGOGUE IN POLITICS 207 

the facts called. This work was worth more than millions of 
staring headlines and clever sensational editorials, more than 
a wilderness of promises from one who seeks to barter 
promises for votes. I cannot believe that the hundreds of 
thousands of policy-holders in this state are not grateful for 
this service, or that all good citizens who justly resented the 
wrongs which he uncloaked, would not be glad to have such 
a man empowered to continue just such service in all 
departments of our state government by his election to the 
governorship of the state. 

The most conspicuous and fit representative of this same 
great and beneficent work in the Federal Government is 
Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States. Let me 
state some of the corporate evils with which he has under- 
taken to deal; not all, but the principal ones. 

1. Many great corporations have united in the formation 
of so-called trusts to get rid of competition, create monopolies 
of the business in which they are engaged, restrict produc- 
tion, and put down the prices at which they purchase raw 
material and put up the prices at which they sell their 
products. 

2. Many great corporations and trusts have undertaken 
to crush out their remaining competitors by unfair competi- 
tion, and especially by securing lower rates of freight from 
the railroad companies for their products than their smaller 
competitors; and as the railroads are bound by law to give the 
same rates to all shippers this unfair advantage has taken 
the form of secret rebates. 

3. Many railroad companies have exercised their arbitrary 
power to fix their rates by arranging them in such a way that 
even without giving rebates, they have favored the large 
shippers in special localities and have been unreasonable 
toward small shippers in other localities. By these unfair 



208 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

means the big, rich corporations have been continually 
driving the small, weak men to the wall, taking away their 
business and increasing their own wealth. 

4. The managers of many great corporations, not satis- 
fied with the natural increase of successful business, have 
enormously increased their capitalization beyond either 
their investment or the value of their property fairly used 
in business. Much of the watered stock has been sold to 
innocent investors, much of it has been secured by the man- 
agers themselves, through various devices, for insufficient 
consideration. These greatly excessive capitals, and the 
necessity of paying interest upon them, have stood as 
barriers against the reduction of transportation rates or the 
prices of products to a point which would secure fair business 
returns. 

5. The offending corporations have clothed their vast and 
complicated business affairs with a mantle of secrecy, so 
that it has been almost impossible to get at the facts of their 
offending, and quite impossible for any weak, private person 
or small corporation that has been injured by them. 

6. One of the great obstacles to the redress of these evils 
has been the unwillingness or inability of the states to deal 
with them. It is difficult for any one state to control cor- 
porations doing business in all the states. The state cannot 
control interstate commerce at all. Many of the states have 
by their laws as well as by their administration facilitated 
and encouraged the objectionable practices. 

Let me tell you that our own state is not blameless in this 
respect, and that we need a Hughes at Albany, with the skill 
and courage to deal with that subject as he dealt with the 
insurance subject. On the other hand, the Federal Govern- 
ment has been met at every turn by the difficulty of control- 
ling state corporations in the exercise of the powers conferred 
upon them by the state in which they were created. 



THE DEMAGOGUE IN POLITICS 209 

Against these battlements of wrong, the President has 
charged with all the energy and sincere conviction of his 
nature; he has waged and is waging open warfare not against 
wealth, but against ill-gotten wealth; not against corpora- 
tions, but against the abuse of corporate power; not against 
enterprise and prosperity, but against the unfair and fraud- 
ulent devices of selfish greed. 

The honest poor man who has felt the crushing power of 
unfair wealth may take heart, for the most powerful per- 
sonality of our generation, from the vantage ground of the 
greatest office of our land, is leading the battle in his behalf; 
the honest rich man who fears that property may be en- 
dangered and prosperity checked may calm his fears; not a 
single principle is invoked in this warfare against corporate 
wrongdoing that has not for centuries been familiar to the 
common law of England and America; no control is asserted 
over business which was not recognized and approved in the 
days of Mansfield and Eldon, Marshall and Kent; but to 
exercise that same measure of control under the new condi- 
tions of our day new agencies and new methods have had to 
be provided by law and sanctioned by the courts. 

For the accomplishment of this due measure of control, 
which from time immemorial our laws have recognized as 
necessary, the Government of the United States has taken 
up the task where the several states have failed, and is 
performing and purposes to perform its duty not beyond but 
to the full limit of its constitutional power. 

The structure of our prosperity will not be weakened, it 
will be made strong and enduring by removing with the care 
of the experienced builder the rotten timbers of disobedience 
to law and disregard of morality. 

The Republican Congress has stood loyally by the Presi- 
dent; the act creating the Bureau of Corporations, the act 
expediting the trial of trust cases, the anti-rebate act, the 



210 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

act for the regulation of railroad rates, have made possible 
redress which was impossible before. Under the direction 
of two successive attorneys-general of the first order of 
ability, sincerity, and devotion, in hundreds of courts, 
incessant warfare has been waged and is being waged under 
the Federal laws against corporate wrongdoers. 

The Northern Securities Company, which sought to com- 
bine and prevent competition between two great continental 
railroads, has been forced to dissolve by the judgment of 
the Supreme Court of the United States. The methods of the 
Beef Trust in combining to suppress competition in the pur- 
chase of live stock and the sale of meat have been tried and 
condemned, and the trust has been placed under injunction 
to abandon those practices, by judgment of the Supreme 
Court. 

The combination of paper manufacturers in the territory 
from Chicago to the Rocky Mountains, has been dissolved 
by the judgment of the Supreme Court, and the combination 
has been abandoned and the price of white paper in that 
territory has gone down thirty per cent. The Retail Grocers' 
Association in this country has been dissolved by decree of 
the court. The elevator combination in the West has been 
dissolved in like manner. The salt combination west of the 
Rocky Mountains has been dissolved by decree of the court. 

The Wholesale Grocers' Association in the South, the meat 
combination and the lumber combination in the West, the 
combination of railroads entering the city of St. Louis to 
suppress competition between the bridges and ferries reach- 
ing that city, the Drug Trust, which suppresses competition 
all over the country, are being vigorously pressed in suits 
brought by the Federal Government for their dissolution. 

The salt combination has been indicted and convicted and 
fined for failing to obey the judgment of dissolution. The 
Beef Trust has been indicted for failing to obey the injunction 



THE DEMAGOGUE IN POLITICS 211 

against it, and has been saved so far only by a decision that 
it had secured temporary immunity by giving evidence 
against itself. One branch of the Tobacco Trust is facing an 
indictment of its corporations and their officers, in the Fed- 
eral court in New York and the other branches are under- 
going investigation. The lumber combination in Oklahoma 
is under indictment. 

The Fertilizer Trust, a combination of thirty-one corpora- 
tions and twenty-five individuals to suppress and fix prices, 
has been indicted, the indictments have been sustained by 
the courts and the combination has been dissolved. The ice 
combination of the District of Columbia is facing criminal 
trial. Special counsel are investigating the coal combination, 
and special counsel are investigating the Standard Oil 
combination. 

Three of the causes won in the Supreme Court of the 
United States have furnished decisions of the utmost 
importance. 

In the Tobacco Trust case of Hale v. Henkel, the Supreme 
Court denied the claim of the trust corporations to be 
exempt under the Constitution from furnishing testimony 
against themselves by the production of their books and 
papers before a Federal grand jury. Thus the protection of 
secrecy for corporate wrongdoing is beaten down. 

In the Northern Securities case, the Supreme Court held 
that a wrong accomplished by means of incorporating in 
accordance with the express provision of a New Jersey statute 
was just as much a violation of Federal law as if there had 
been no incorporation. Thus the state rights defense of pro- 
tection from favoring state statutes is beaten down. 

In the Beef Trust case, the Supreme Court held that, 
although the business of manufacture was carried on within 
the hmits of a single state, yet the purchase of the raw mate- 
rial in different states and the sale of the finished product 



212 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

in different states brought the business within the interstate 
commerce clause of the Constitution and gave the Federal 
Government authority over it. Thus the defense that the 
state alone can deal with manufacturing corporations, how- 
ever widespread their business, is beaten down. 

The obstacles to the enforcement of the Federal anti-trust 
act thus removed are obstacles which stood in the way of all 
proceedings, and they had to be cleared away before any 
proceedings of the same character against the same classes 
of corporations could be successfully maintained. They have 
been removed, not by newspaper headlines and denunciation, 
but by skill, ability, and energy of the highest order. 

After the Elkins anti-rebate law was passed by Congress 
in 1903, it was supposed, and the Interstate Commerce 
Commission reported, that the railroads had substantially 
abandoned giving rebates. Their good resolutions do not 
seem, however, to have lasted. The struggle for business 
enabled the shippers soon to secure a renewal of rebates, or, 
by ingenious devices, advantages equivalent to rebates. 

Thereupon the Department of Justice began active pros- 
ecutions for the enforcement of the law. Fifty-three indict- 
ments have been found against hundreds of defendants, 
covering many hundreds of transactions. There have been 
fourteen criminal convictions. Fourteen individuals have 
been fined to the gross amount of $66,125. Nine corporations 
have been fined to the amount of $253,000. Thirty-five 
indictments are ready for trial in their regular order upon the 
court calendar. 

The original statute provided only for punishment by fine. 
Last winter it was amended by providing for punishment by 
imprisonment, and if the fines imposed under the original 
law shall not prove to have stopped the practice, we shall see 
whether fear of the penitentiary under the amendment will 
not do so. 



THE DEMAGOGUE IN POLITICS 213 

Under this statute also it was necessary to sweep away 
defenses which stood as barriers to general prosecution, and 
in the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad case, 
decided by the Supreme Court on the nineteenth of February 
of this year, and the Milwaukee Refrigerator Transit case, 
decided in the seventh circuit on the thirty-first of May of 
this year, the courts have held that the substance and not 
the form is to control in the application of the statute, and 
that, however the transaction may be disguised, an unlawful 
discrimination can be reached and punished. The way is 
therefore cleared for all other prosecutions. 

The Railroad-rates act, which was the subject of such 
excited discussion during the last session of Congress, has 
already justified itself. Since the passage of the act, less 
than five months ago, there have been more voluntary reduc- 
tions of rates by our railroads than during the entire nineteen 
years of the previous life of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission. On the single day August 29, 1906, two days before 
the act went into force, over five thousand notices of vol- 
untary reduction of rates were filed with the Interstate 
Commerce Commission by the railroads of the United 
States. 

Over-capitalization is an evil peculiarly within the control 
of state governments, and one for which we ought to have in 
every state capital a man who can do what Mr. Hughes has 
shown himself capable of doing; but the Federal Govern- 
ment, through the Bureau of Corporations, is going far on the 
road to a cure by getting at the truth and dispelling the 
darkness under the cover of which the evil has grown. 

Nor should other evils with which the Federal Government 
is grappling be forgotten — the Pure Food act and the Meat 
Inspection act of the last session of Congress are protecting 
the food of the people against fraud and adulteration and 
contamination; justice from the employer to the employed 



214 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

is advanced by the wise Employer's Liability act of the last 
session; the Federal contractor's eight-hour labor law, too 
long ignored, is being vigorously enforced, and every week 
come reports of new convictions for its violation; the safety- 
appliance law, discredited in the lower courts, has been taken 
by the Government intervening in aid of an injured employee, 
to the Supreme Court of the United States in a suit against 
the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, and has been 
established upon a sm'e foundation by the decision of that 
great court. 

All this has not been easy; it has required not merely skill 
and ability and patient industry and the tremendous per- 
sonaHty of the President, against all powerful influences 
urging on Congress and lawyers and courts, but it has 
required and stUl requires persistency, long-continued and 
constant effort, a deliberate, settled, and unvarying policy. 

That policy is now before the American people for their 
approval or disapproval, and it is confronted by two dangers. 

The first danger is lest the people should refuse to return 
a majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives, 
which has stood so loyally by the President, and should 
return a Democratic majority which will be in opposition to 
the President. Do not be deceived about that. Under our 
system of government, effective, affirmative governmental 
action requires the cooperation of both President and 
Congress; that cooperation can be had only with a House of 
Representatives of the President's own party. It cannot be 
had by rejecting and punishing the members of the House 
who have been working with the President in the past. 

A Democratic House, in inevitable conflict with a Republi- 
can Senate, would not really help the Democratic party, but 
it would hinder, embarrass, weaken, and dishearten the 
President and his assistants in carrying on the policy in 
which they are engaged. Independent and patriotic Demo- 



THE DEMAGOGUE IN POLITICS 215 

crats equally with Republicans ought to avoid a result so 
disastrous to our country. 

It would be unpatriotic to deprive our government of the 
help, and this state of the credit, found in the able and expe- 
rienced service of our respected and beloved Congressman, 
James S. Sherman. 

The second danger is, lest in this greatest of states, the 
President's own state, the voters shall reject Mr. Hughes, 
who was the President's own choice for the nomination, who 
by his character and his achievements has shown himself fit 
and competent in the great office of governor of this state to 
help hold up the President's hands and to carry on in the state 
the same policy that the President is carrying on in the 
nation. 

What evidence has Mr. Hearst produced of his fitness for 
this office ? 

Of his private life I shall not speak further than to say that 
from no community in this state does there come concerning 
him that testimony of lifelong neighbors and acquaintances 
to his private virtues, the excellence of his morals, and the 
correctness of his conduct which we should like to have 
concerning the man who is to be made the governor of our 
state. 

What evidence comes from his public career ? He has been 
a member of Congress from New York City, and he owed his 
office to a Tammany organization and Tammany votes in a 
Tammany district; but he has been an absolute cipher in 
Congress. That is his entire public career. 

He is really known to us solely as a young man, very rich by 
inheritance, who has become the owner of a number of sen- 
sational yellow journals; he has taken in his newspapers the 
popular side upon all questions relating to labor and corpora- 
tions and has sustained it by much violent denunciation and 
many falsehoods, and he has been a persistent seeker for 



216 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

oflSce on the strength of taking the popular side; he has 
published whatever he thought would please the working 
people for the purpose of getting the labor vote. It is difficult 
to believe that the hard-headed, shrewd workingmen of 
America will give him much credit for that. 

There is, however, affirmative evidence of Mr. Hearst's 
unfitness for the great office of governor. You will perceive 
that to the remedy of corporate wrongs for which he offers 
himself two things are necessary — first, intelligent and well- 
devised legislation, which shall strip from the wrongdoing 
corporate managers the advantage of laws made under their 
influence to facilitate their practices, which shall clearly 
prohibit their wrongful acts, and which shall provide the 
machinery and procedure and the necessary agencies for 
enforcing those laws; and, second, the judicial enforcement 
of the laws, which requires upright and courageous judges 
who will administer the laws without fear or favor, uninflu- 
enced by wealth or popularity or personal friends or political 
bosses. 

Underlying both of these and necessary to both, is political 
purity, for without that neither legislatures nor courts can 
be pure. 

How stands Mr. Hearst's record as to political purity ? 
Why, he comes to us covered all over with the mark of Tam- 
many and Tammany's leader, Murphy, whom he himself has 
denounced as a scoundrel and a thief; he comes to us not 
answering to the call of the people of the state, not as the 
honest candidate of the Democratic party of the state, but 
nominated by his own procurement, through as shameful a 
deal with the boss of Tammany as ever disgraced a political 
history of the state — a deal under which a great body of the 
regularly elected delegates to the Democratic convention 
were unseated and, in their absence, the nomination of 
Mr. Hearst was made by the solid vote of the Tammany 



THE DEMAGOGUE IN POLITICS 217 

delegation. Can hypocrisy go further than the willing bene- 
ficiary of Tammany Hall preaching political purity ? 

How stands his record as a legislator ? He has had oppor- 
timity to prove his capacity and sincerity in that field. Rep- 
resentatives are sent to Congress to attend to the business 
of the country; there are hundreds of members of both parties 
working upon that every day of every session in the per- 
formance of their duty; the interests of the country cannot 
be cared for in any other way; Mr. Hearst was sent to Con- 
gress to do that; he had an opportunity then to show how 
much sincerity there was in all the talk of his newspapers 
about reforms and better government. 

What did he do ? Why, he did nothing; during the three 
years that he has been in Congress that body has been in 
session 467 days; there have been 185 recorded votes by yea 
and nay; he was present and voting at but twenty-three, 
and present without voting at two, leaving 160 out of the 185 
roll-calls from which he was absent, and 442 out of the 467 
days of legislative session when there is no evidence of his 
presence; his voice was heard in that Congress in those three 
years but once, and that was for ten minutes in a personal 
explanation regarding an article published in the New York 
American; he did not even contribute a motion to adjourn 
to the business of Congress. 

He is so rich that the $15,000 paid him for that neglected 
service may seem of no consequence; but no honest poor man 
would have thought it right to take it. Others doubtless did 
the work Mr. Hearst was sent to Washington to do; but it 
is of public interest to know that this man, who offers himseK 
for a great public office on the strength of what he has 
printed in his newspaper about legislative reforms and the 
duties of others, totally failed to perform his own duty and 
proved a worthless public servant in a legislative office — 
the only office he has ever held. 



218 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

How does he stand regarding the courts? There, indeed, 
if he is to be taken at his own estimate, he should be found 
inflexible; an independent judiciary should be his dearest 
hope. As to that he has had a great opportunity, for this is 
an exceptional year of judicial elections; ten new justices of 
the Supreme Court are to be elected in the city of New York. 
How has he used his new political power concerning them ? 
Why, he has made another bargain with Murphy, under which 
Murphy has named six of them and Hearst has named four! 

Six justices of the Supreme Court named by Charles F. 
Murphy, the boss of Tammany Hall, by agreement with 
William R.. Hearst, the self-declared reformer. If he thus 
delivers the power over our courts to the man whom he 
declares to be a thief and a scoundrel, for the sake of getting 
votes for the governorship, what would he, as governor, do 
for the sake of getting votes for the Presidency ? 

His own corporate management shows the insincerity of 
his professions. Not only does he conduct his extensive news- 
paper business through corporations, but he has estabhshed 
separate corporations for separate newspapers and he has 
established a holding corporation to hold the stock of these 
separate corporations; and Mr. Hughes has plainly shown 
that he has juggled with these different incorporations to 
escape his just share of public taxation and to hinder and 
defeat the prosecution of just claims against him. 

It is seldom indeed that a man so young, whose public 
career has been so brief, so small a portion of whose life is 
known at all to the pubKc, has furnished such convincing 
proofs of his unfitness for office. 

But the worst of Mr. Hearst is that with his great wealth, 
with his great newspapers, with his army of paid agents, for 
his own selfish purposes, he has been day by day and year by 
year sowing the seeds of dissension and strife and hatred 
throughout our land; he would array labor against capital 



THE DEMAGOGUE IN POLITICS 219 

and capital against labor; poverty against wealth and wealth 
against poverty, with bitter and vindictive feeling; he would 
destroy among the great mass of our people that kindly and 
friendly spirit, that consideration for the interests and the 
rights of others, that brotherhood of citizenship which are 
essential to the peaceful conduct of free popular government; 
he would destroy that respect for law, that love of order, that 
confidence in our free institutions which are the basis at once 
of true freedom and true justice. 

The malignant falsehoods of these journals, read by the 
immigrant in his new home where none can answer them, 
are making him hate the people who have welcomed him to 
liberty and prosperity, to abundant employment, to ample 
wages, to education for his children, to independence for his 
manhood such as he has never known before. 

It is not the calm and lawful redress of wrongs which he 
seeks, it is the turmoil of inflamed passions and the terror- 
ism of revengeful force; he spreads the spirit, he follows 
the methods and he is guided by the selfish motives of the 
revolutionist; and he would plunge our peaceful land into 
the turmoil and discord of perpetual conflict, out of which the 
republics of South America are now happily passing. 

Does any one question the justice of these statements ? 
Then let him turn to the pages of the newspapers through 
the ownership of which Mr. Hearst is pressing his poHtical 
fortunes. 

What public servant honored by the people's trust has he 
not assailed with vile and vulgar epithets; what branch of 
our free government has he not taught his readers to believe 
a corrupt agency of oppression ! 

Listen to this from the Journal : 

It is the sad duty of the Journal to announce to the people of the United 
States that their President, William McEonley, has deliberately tricked 
Congress and the country. . . . 



220 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

McKinley and the Wall Street Cabinet are ready to surrender every 
particle of national honor and dignity. 

Congress and the people of the United States have been fooled, tricked 
and deceived from the beginning to the end. 

And to this: 

The Board of Elections has already begun its disgraceful and discredit- 
able work. It has allowed the People's petitions intrusted to its care to be 
marked and mutilated and destroyed. It has thrown out petitions by the 
score, and its action has been sustained by the courts even as the courts 
last year decided that you, as citizens, had no right to have your votes 
honestly counted, but must abide by any returns, no matter how false, of 
corrupt election officials. 

And to this: 

The effort is being made now by the criminal trusts to crush out the 
power of the people in the American Government. These trusts control 
your parties, control your primaries, control yovu* pubHc officers, and deny 
you the right to any government that will express the popular will. You 
are deserted and betrayed by the public officers that should sustain you, 
and by the so-called free press that should support you. 

Joseph H. Choate, the leader of the American bar, whose 
honored and distinguished career is known the world over, 
who has been the pride of all true Americans, is stigmatized 
as " a servile lickspittle of corporations." 

Fulton Cutting, ideal citizen, leader in philanthropy and 
independent politics, as a " worthless poodle." 

Edward M. Shepard, the foremost advocate of civic virtue 
in the Democratic politics of New York City, as a " corpora- 
tion lawyer." 

William T. Jerome, the Democrat of independence above 
all others, as a " political Croton bug." 

Timothy L. Woodruff, twice elected lieutenant-governor 
of the state, chairman of the Republican State Com- 
mittee, as standing *' for everything rotten in Republican 
politics." 

Charles A. Towne, radical Congressman, as " a rat." 



THE DEMAGOGUE IN POLITICS 221 

Richard Watson Gilder, the leader of the tenement house 
reform of New York, as having " no more manliness than an 
apple blossom." 

Thomas Taggart, chairman of the Democratic National 
Committee, as *' a plague spot in the community spreading 
vileness." 

Secretary Bonaparte as " a cab-horse — a snob." 

Senator Knox, the attorney-general who brought and won 
the suit against the Northern Securities Company, as having 
" Coal Trust guilt for a pillow." 

George B. McClellan, congressman, mayor of New York, 
and worthy heir of an honored name, as a " fraud Mayor," 
" office thief," and " the dead cat in the City Hall." 

Alton B. Parker, chief justice of the state, candidate of 
the Democratic party for the Presidency, as " a cockroach, 
a waterbug." 

John Sharp Williams, leader of the Democratic party in 
the House of Representatives, as " a railroad attorney." 

Joseph G. Cannon, speaker of the House of Representa- 
tives — the honest, plain, typical American, as being " as 
httle scrupulous in politics as a fox in a barnyard." 

Charles W. Fairbanks, vice-president of the United States, 
as " a Wall Street speculator." 

John Hay, the great secretary of state, the cherished friend 
of Lincoln — noble, pure, virile American, lover of his coun- 
try and his kind, whose authorship has adorned our literature 
and whose wise, strong statesmanship has lifted high the 
power and prestige of America throughout the world, is 
described as " a guy in a ruff and a red coat." 

To Thomas B. Reed, the great speaker of the House, he 
writes in a published letter: "You divide McIGnley's 
infamy with him and so make his load the easier. By the 
same token you have become a toad to the public eye; you 



222 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

grow to be looked upon as a thing loathsome; your name 
becomes a hissing and a reproach, and your deeds a stench 
in the nostrils of men." 

Grover Cleveland, twice president of the United States, is 
described as " no more or less than a living, breathing crime 
in breeches." 

Theodore Roosevelt, president of the United States, is 
called " a loose-tongued demagogue," " a woman killer," 
" a flagrant tax dodger," " a player to the colored gallery," 
" a man with the caste feeling," one who " has sold himself 
to the devil and will live up to the bargain." 

Once only has this method of incendiary abuse wrought 
out its natural consequence — in the murder of President 
McKinley. For years, by vile epithet and viler cartoons, the 
readers of the Journal were taught to believe that McKinley 
was a monster in human form, whose taking-off would be a 
service to mankind. Let me quote some of these teachings: 

McKinley condones the treacherous murder of our sailors at Havana 
and talks of his confidence in the honor of Spain. He plays the coward and 
shivers white-faced at the footfall of approaching war. He makes an 
international cur of his country. He is an abject, weak, futile, incompetent 
poltroon. 

McKinley, bar one girthy Princeton person, who came to be no more 
or less than a hving, breathing crime in breeches, is therefore the most 
despised and hated creature in the hemisphere; his name is hooted; his 
figure is burned in effigy. 

The bullet that pierced Goebel's chest 
Cannot be found in all the West; 
Good reason, it is speeding here 
To stretch McKinley on his bier. 

And this, in April, 1901 : 

Institutions, like men, will last until they die; and if bad institutions 
and bad men can be got rid of only by killing, then the killing must be 
done. 

And this, in June, 1901 : 

There has been much assassination in the world, from the assassination 
of some old rulers who needed assassination to the assassination of men in 



THE DEMAGOGUE IN POLITICS 223 

England, who, driven to steal by hunger, were caught and hanged most 
legally. . . . 

Is there any doubt that the assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday 
changed history to some extent ? What proof is there that France would 
have settled down into imperial Napoleonism and prosperity if Marat, the 
wonderful eye doctor, had been allowed to live to retain his absolute 
mastery of the Paris populace ? . . . 

If Cromwell had not resolved to remove the head of Charles I from his 
lace collar, v^-ould England be what she is today — a really free nation and 
a genuine republic ? 

Did not the murder of Lincoln, uniting in sympathy and regret all good 
people in the North and South, hasten the era of American good feeling 
and perhaps prevent the renewal of fighting between brothers ? 

The murder of Caesar certainly changed the history of Europe, besides 
preventing that great man from ultimately displaying vanity as great as 
his ability. 

When wise old sayings, such as that of Disraeli about assassination, are 
taken up it is worth while, instead of swallowing them whole, to analyze 
them. We invite our readers to think over this question. The time 
devoted to it will not be wasted. 

What wonder that the weak and excitable brain of Czol- 
gosz answered to such impulses as these! He never knew 
McKinley; he had no real or fancied wrongs of his own to 
avenge against McKinley or McKinley's government; he 
was answering to the lesson he had learned, that it was a ser- 
vice to mankind to rid the earth of a monster; and the fore- 
most of the teachers of these lessons to him and his kind was 
and is William Randolph Hearst with his yellow joiu'nals. 

The offense is deepened by the revolting hypocrisy which, 
to avert public indignation when the fatal blow had been 
struck and that strong and gentle spirit had departed, 
lauded the dead President to the skies, and said of him in the 
New York Journal: 

Nowhere in the history of great men's lives, or of great men's deaths, 
can be found such resignation and deep religious faith as marked the last 
hours of WUliam McKinley. He faced the other world and the other life 
with the quiet, confident hope of a man who had done his best. Slowly the 
heart's strength died out. It had carried him through two wars, through 



224 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

many political battles, through many long days of toil, through many 
years of hard work and serious purpose. He began life as a simple Chris- 
tian citizen. He worked hard. He interested himself in his country's 
welfare. He succeeded; he reached the highest place in the nation. He 
exercised and represented the greatest of earthly powers. He was called 
a second time to the highest position that men can give to any man. He 
ended his life as he began it — a simple Christian citizen. 

Is there no one left who loved McKinley ? Are there no 
workingmen left in New York who can not see with satisfac- 
tion honors heaped upon the man who is not guiltless of 
McKinley's death ? 

The same kind of teaching is being continued now month 
by month and day by day in the Hearst journals. Its legiti- 
mate consequence, if continued, must be, other weak dupes 
playing the role of Czolgosz; other McKinleys stretched 
upon the bier; discord and bloody strife in place of the reign 
of peace and order throughout our fair land. It is not the 
spirit of Washington and of Lincoln; it is the spirit of malice 
for all and charity towards none; it is the spirit of anarchy, 
of communism, of Kishineff and of Bielostok. 

Men of New York, do you love your country ? Are you 
not proud of your country ? Are not its liberty, its justice, 
its equal laws, the best that weak and erring men have ever 
yet attained in this world ? Have not those of you who have 
come to us from other lands found better conditions of life, 
better employment, better wages, greater personal indepen- 
dence and dignity, better opportunities for your children 
than ever before ? Do you wish to join your voices to that 
which declares this freest of republics, this foremost result 
of government by the people, to be all vile and rotten and 
disgraceful ? 

The public knows the character of Mr. Hearst only by the 
newspapers he publishes, and God forbid that we should set 
up in the high station of governor of New York, for the 
admiration and imitation of our children, the man whose 



THE DEMAGOGUE IN POLITICS 225 

character is reflected in the columns of the New York Journal 
and the New York Americanl 

The immediate and necessary effect of Mr. Hearst's elec- 
tion would be to deprive the President of the moral support 
of the state of New York; it would be to strengthen the 
President's enemies and opponents and to weaken and 
embarrass him in the pursuit of his policy. 

The election of this violent extremist would inevitably 
lead to a reaction against all true reform and genuine redress 
of grievances. There is no enemy of true reform so fatal as 
sham reform; there is no enemy of the sincere and faithful 
public servant who is seeking by patient and well directed 
effort to frame and to enforce just laws, like the selfish agita- 
tor who is seeking his own advancement; there is no ally of 
unscrupulous wealth so potent as the violent extremist who 
drives good, honest, and conservative men away from the 
cause of true reform by the violence of his words and the 
intemperance of his excessive proposals. 

I beg the workingmen of New York who may hear or read 
my words to think upon these questions. Do you believe 
in President Roosevelt ? Do you agree with his policy in 
pursuing and preventing corporate wrongdoing ? Do you 
wish that he may be able to continue that policy with power 
and success ? If you do, then help him by your votes. 

I say to you, with his authority, that he greatly desires the 
election of a Republican House of Representatives to work 
with him in the next Congress; I say to you, with his author- 
ity, that he greatly desires the election of Mr. Hughes as 
governor of the state of New York; I say to you, with his 
authority, that he regards Mr. Hearst as wholly unfit to be 
governor, as an insincere, self-seeking demagogue, who is 
trying to deceive the workingmen of New York by false 
statements and false promises; and I say to you, with his 
authority, that he considers that Mr. Hearst's election would 



226 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

be an injury and a discredit alike to honest labor and to 
honest capital, and a serious injury to the work in which he is 
engaged of enforcing just and equal laws against corporate 
wrongdoing. 

President Roosevelt and Mr. Hearst stand as far as the 
poles asunder. Listen to what President Roosevelt himself 
has said of Mr. Hearst and his kind. In President Roose- 
velt's first message to Congress, in speaking of the assassin 
of McKinley, he spoke of him as inflamed " by the reckless 
utterances of those who, on the stump and in the public press, 
appeal to the dark and evil spirits of malice and greed, envy 
and sullen hatred. The wind is sowed by the men who preach 
such doctrines, and they cannot escape their share of respon- 
sibility for the whirlwind that is reaped. This applies alike 
to the deliberate demagogue, to the exploiter of sensation- 
alism, and to the crude and foolish visionary who, for whatever 
reason, apologizes for crime or excites aimless discontent." 

I say, by the President's authority, that in penning these 
words, with the horror of President McKinley's murder fresh 
before him, he had Mr. Hearst specifically in his mind. 

And 1 say, by his authority, that what he thought of Mr. 
Hearst then he thinks of Mr. Hearst now. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1908 

ADDRESS OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE AS CHAIRMAN OF THE 

REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION, SARATOGA SPRINGS 

NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 14, 1908 

JUST a decade has passed since we were assembled in this 
place engaged in the business of nominating Theodore 
Roosevelt for governor of New York. We are now to nomi- 
nate a successor to Charles E. Hughes as governor; and we 
are to perform that duty according to our wisdom, our loy- 
alty to party and to country in such a way that the Empire 
State shall surely cast her electoral vote for the Republican 
candidate to succeed the same Theodore Roosevelt as presi- 
dent of the United States. 

May we not discern in the performance of that duty an 
opportunity broader in its scope, more compelling in its 
obHgation than the mere attainment of local success ? May 
we not do our work here in such a way and in such a spirit 
that throughout all the country, Republicans shall be inspired 
with courage and hope, and every doubtful voter shall be 
convinced by proof that in this great representative state, 
the home of the candidate for vice-president, Repubhcans 
are sincere in their professions, loyal to their principles, unsel- 
fish in their patriotism, truly representative of the body of 
the people and worthy of the great traditions of the party 
of Lincoln ? 

We have a record which forbids discouragement or doubt 
in the performance of our task. We can turn to the admin- 
istrations, now drawing to a close, both in the state and in 
the nation, and with confidence ask every American voter 
to say whether they have not met all the great fundamental 

227 



228 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

requisites of good government, whether they do not justify the 
behef that it is best for the country to keep in power the party 
which is responsible for them and is entitled to the credit of 
them. Have not these administrations within the state and 
in the nation been honest ? Have they not been capable ? 
Have they not been efficient ? Have they not set before all 
the people of America examples of pure, high-minded and 
patriotic service in public office ? Have they not raised the 
standard of public duty which the young men of America 
set for themselves ? Have they not done us honor before 
the world ? 

These are the true tests by which to determine whether it 
is wise to continue a political party in power. It is such tests 
as these that we all apply in our private affairs when we select 
a business agent or a trustee or a lawyer or a teacher for our 
children. Common sense dictates their application in the 
selection of our agents and trustees for public business. All 
parties make promises before election agreeable to the ear 
and satisfying to the wishes of voters; but will they keep the 
promises ? What is the evidence that they are made up of 
men who have the honest will, the firmness of character and 
the ability, without which such promises are worthless ? 
Look to the record; see what parties have done in the past, 
and learn there which should be trusted for the future. Look 
not to petty, refined details, but to the broad question 
whether, taken as a whole, their wisdom, efficiency, and 
honesty in the past give promise of wisdom, efficiency, and 
honesty in the future. The answer to this question will be 
worth more as a guide to the voters at the coming election 
than aU the discussion over fine-spun theories and sanguine 
conjectures that can be crowded into a presidential campaign. 

There have been two special and notable characteristics in 
which these two administrations have been alike. One is 
that they have both gone directly to the people of the coun- 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1908 229 

try, to the great body of the electors themselves, for their 
inspiration and their strength. Neither Governor nor Presi- 
dent has relied upon that view of expediency in the conduct 
of public affairs which is to be gained by secret conferences 
in closed rooms. They have construed their representation 
of the people as being immediate and without intervening 
authority or interpreters. When they have formed opinions 
as to the lines of policy which it was wise to follow in the 
performance of their duties, they have explained their 
opinions directly, through the press and through public 
speeches, to the people who elected them, and, having got 
back the people's answer, they have given due weight 
and effect to it, in accordance with the true principles of 
representative government. 

The second special resemblance is in a much more than 
ordinary vigor and sternness in the enforcement of law, 
which have characterized both state and national adminis- 
trations. Does the constitution of the state say that no 
gambling shall be allowed in the state ? Then it seems to 
the state administration a compulsory and inevitable con- 
clusion to be forthwith acted upon with all the power of the 
state, that such allowance must be stopped at all hazards, no 
matter who is hurt or who is offended. Do the laws of the 
United States declare that there shall be no discrimination in 
railroad rates between shippers great or small ? Then dis- 
criminations and rebates must be stopped by the whole 
aggressive force of the National Government, whatever the 
cost, however great and powerful may be the offenders 
pursued, however injurious may be their enmity. The 
novelty of this strenuous law enforcement has not consisted 
in applying any new theories of governmental control or in 
the exercise of any new powers, but rather in breaking up the 
sleepy old methods of procedure, in securing practically 
adequate administrative statutes to give Kfe to the old 



230 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

constitutional and statutory declarations of general rules 
which were by themselves ineffective, and in putting force 
and momentum into the attack on established and custom- 
ary evils. 

When continuous and widespread violations of law have 
been profitable and many persons have a special pecuniary 
interest against any interference with them, they present a 
degree of resistance to law enforcement which can be over- 
come only by an awakened public interest, and by a degree 
of apparent excitement which sometimes seems like undue 
violence, for force must be proportioned to resistance. It is 
impossible to burst open doors softly. An incident to this 
kind of vigorous law enforcement is the resentment and 
revengeful feeling of the people whose profits are interfered 
with. Of this feeling, awakened by Republican law enforce- 
ment, the Democratic party now gladly takes the benefit, 
and one of the serious questions of this campaign is to be 
whether the people of the country are going to permit the 
Republican party to suffer for having enforced the law in 
the state and the nation, or whether they are going to back 
up law enforcement by their approval shown in their votes 
for the Republican candidates. 

In every department of the National Government since the 
decisive approval of Republican administration given in 
the great majorities four years ago, there has been practical 
effectiveness of action which should be highly satisfactory to 
all the people of the country who really care about having 
the government business well and creditably done. 

The financial panic of last autumn which resulted, as so 
many panics have before, from reckless extravagance and 
wild speculation, was checked by the firm hand and clear 
understanding of national financial administration. Confi- 
dence was restored. The panic has passed away, revealing 
a substantial business soundness and widely diffused wealth 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1908 231 

throughout the country, unprecedented in our history and 
the result of a long period of wise and able Republican 
administration; and the Republican Congress, against much 
Democratic opposition, has enacted a wise law to make 
such a panic as that impossible in the future. 

Our War Department has continued to be an agent for 
peace and for the spread of American ideals of ordered lib- 
erty. The Filipinos, already initiated by us in the practice 
of local self-government in their barrios and provinces, have 
now been taught the first step towards national self-govern- 
ment by the successful inauguration of the Philippine 
Legislative Assembly. 

Cuba has been pacified. Her armies, on the verge of 
bloodshed, have been induced to lay down their arms, and, 
under the intervening government and guidance of the 
United States, through perfectly peaceful and orderly elec- 
tions, Cuba is about to embark in her second attempt at 
independent self-government. "^ 

Under the medical ofiScers of the army the Isthmus of 
Panama, where pestilence had ruled for centuries and work- 
men died like flies, has been made healthful and safe; yellow 
fever has been banished, malaria has been reduced and the 
death rate among the thirty thousand employees engaged in 
the canal work has been reduced to the ordinary average 
level of our American cities. Under the engineer officers of 
the army the work of excavation and construction is pro- 
gressing with a rapidity never before known upon any work in 
the world, and the simple continuance of the present condi- 
tions will within the next seven years crown the work by the 
completion of the canal, to the imperishable honor of 
America as a benefactor of civihzation. What will happen 
if the American people change the administration with all the 
chances of incapacity, inexperience and doubtful experiment 
no one can forecast. 



POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

The extraordinary voyage of our battleship fleet, circum- 
navigating South America, to the extreme northern boundary 
of our western coast, across the wide Pacific to far-off New 
Zealand and Australia, and so along its way around the 
world, has evoked much discussion as to both political and 
naval policy. In both of these the developments of the voy- 
age have shown that the policy of the Administration was 
sound and far-sighted. There is one other thing which the 
voyage has shown beyond peradventure; it is that there has 
been only sound and honest work under the Navy Depart- 
ment in construction, in equipment and in training. The 
unexampled test to which this fleet has been subjected 
absolutely excludes any possibility of graft or slackness or 
false pretense in naval administration. 

The Post Office Department has increased its receipts from 
$82,665,462.73 in 1897 to $183,585,005.57 in 1907. It has 
increased the number of pieces handled from 5,781,002,143 
in 1897 to 12,255,666,367 in 1907. It has increased the Rural 
Free Delivery routes from 83 in 1897 to 37,728 in 1907, and 
39,270 in 1908, serving sixteen million people, while it has 
decreased the number of post offices from 76,945 in 1901 to 
62,659 in 1907. The great increase in circulation of news- 
papers and magazines along the Rural Free Delivery routes, 
the bringing of up-to-date information about markets and 
improvements and current events to the farmer, the relief to 
the isolation of farm life, all testify to the wisdom of this 
beneficent Republican policy, which had its origin under 
President McKinley and its great development under Presi- 
dent Roosevelt. The Post Office Department has effected a 
saving of nearly five millions a year by reform in the weighing 
of railway mails. It has almost completed the list of parcel- 
post conventions with the other nations of the world. It has 
given security of tenure to good postmasters, has reduced 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1908 233 

the hours of labor and has increased the promptness and 
efficiency of the service. 

The Department of Justice has borne the burden of vast 
and complicated litigation necessary to the legal assault upon 
widespread and deeply intrenched abuses defended by wealth 
and influence and power in many fields. By investigations 
and suits and prosecutions it has substantially put an end to 
the almost universal practice of railroad rebates. It has 
halted and made it plain that if allowed to continue in the 
same way it will inevitably end the oppressive and unfair 
practices through which great combinations of capital have 
been acquiring monopolies and crushing weaker competitors. 
It has compelled the land thieves and timber thieves who had 
fastened themselves upon the great government domains 
in the West to give up their plunder. By prosecutions under 
the penal clauses of the postal laws it has put an end to 
lotteries in the United States. It has conducted an effec- 
tive campaign against the practice of peonage, a thin disguise 
under which slavery was again reappearing in certain regions 
of the South. Under the wise policy of recent Republican 
legislation it has asserted the value of American citizenship 
by scrutinizing for the first time in our history the proceed- 
ings in the multitude of courts which have power to grant 
naturalization, and by prosecuting the fraudulent practices 
under which, unchecked, the liberaHty of the United States 
towards the immigrant had so often been abused. By active 
proceedings it has given new life to the eight hour labor and 
contract labor provisions of the Federal statutes. It has 
enforced the ordinary laws and conducted the ordinary legal 
business of the Government faithfully and effectively. 

In the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture a new 
era has been inaugurated, of protection, preservation, and 
enlargement of the natural wealth of the United States. 



234 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

The reclamation of the arid lands of the West by irrigation 
was provided for by the act of the Republican Congress of 
June 17, 1902, a fitting supplement to that other great Repub- 
lican measure, the homestead law. Under that act more 
than 25,000,000 acres of desert lands are being rapidly con- 
verted into fruitful farms, without entailing the ultimate 
cost of a dollar to the national treasury. Twenty-five irriga- 
tion projects are under construction. On the first of January 
last, 1,881 miles of canals had been dug; 281 great dams and 
other large structures for the storage and utilization of water 
had been built; 42,447,000 cubic yards of earth and rock had 
been excavated; thirteen and a half miles of tunnels had been 
driven, and already, with practically all of the projects still 
uncompleted, eight new towns have been established and 
over fourteen thousand of our people have made new homes 
on the reclaimed land. 

The forest policy of Republican administration under the 
Department of Agriculture has been far in advance of the 
general public appreciation of its importance. Over 166,- 
000,000 acres of public forest land have been placed under 
the administration of the forest service, and by strict and well 
organized supervision are preserved from spoliation and from 
fire as great reservoirs of water supply for the interests of 
navigation, irrigation, power, and domestic use. The forests 
are not only preserved, but they are used for grazing where 
they can be grazed without injury, and for cutting the ripe 
timber that can be cut without injury. The cost of super- 
vision, protection, and utilization has risen as the area set 
aside has increased, from $350,000 in 1904 to $1,790,678.79 
in 1907, but the receipts from the sale of timber and grazing 
have risen from $58,436.19 m 1904 to $1,571,059.44 in 
1907, so that the service is abeady almost self-supporting. 
Sixty-seven million acres of public lands underlaid by coal 
which under former practices would have been sold at a small 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1908 235 

minimum price, and, too often, have been taken up by fraudu- 
lent entries as agricultural lands for the benefit of some cor- 
poration or syndicate, have been withdrawn from entry. 
Fifty million acres of the lands thus withdrawn have been 
examined and valued by the Geological Survey, and restored 
to public purchase as coal lands at a true and reasonable 
valuation. At fifteen hundred stations throughout the 
United States the flow of streams has been gauged and a 
knowledge of their flood and low stages and average discharge 
has been obtained through the Geological Survey. These 
investigations have shown where millions of wasted horse- 
power can be utilized, and at the same time destructive floods 
controlled and an equal flow of water preserved for the uses 
of navigation in the East and irrigation in the West. 

The grazing lands of the public domain had been greatly 
encroached upon by the great cattle owners, and during the 
past five years fences unlawfully enclosing public lands have 
been removed from 3,518,583 acres and action has been taken 
to remove such enclosures from an additional 3,763,186 acres. 
During the past eight years over a million dollars have been 
collected by the Departments of the Interior and of Justice 
in penalties for timber trespasses. For all sorts of offenses 
aimed at the public domain during that period over three 
thousand indictments have been found; over 870 convictions 
have been had and over 250 prison sentences have been im- 
posed. Within the same period 7,874 fraudulent land entries 
have been cancelled, restoring to public entry over 2,259,840 
acres. Government initiative and Government activity in 
the conservation of our national resources have awakened the 
whole country to a sense of the wastefulness which has 
depleted our wealth in the past and the necessity of economy 
in the future. 

In the meantime the Department of Agriculture is increas- 
ing the value of every acre of land by scientific researches 



236 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

and experiments and practical instruction which are teaching 
our people to make their land more productive and to combat 
the enemies of animal and plant life. Careful, well organized 
and systematic inspection and supervision under the meat 
inspection law and the pure food law of 1906, have restored 
the credit of our meat products and are protecting our people 
from fraudulent and adulterated foods. 

The Department of Commerce and Labor has, for the first 
time, established immediate and practical cooperation be- 
tween the Government and the organized commercial bodies 
of the country. It is sifting with greater efficiency than ever 
before, under the recent legislation of Congress, the crowds 
of immigrants who come to our ports, and excluding crimi- 
nals, paupers, the diseased, and contract laborers. It is 
bringing publicity into the workings of the great corporations. 
It is investigating the conditions surrounding woman and 
child labor in the United States. It is keeping the producers 
and merchants of the country constantly fully informed as 
to the markets and trade conditions of the entire world. 

All of these Departments are performing with integrity 
and efficiency the vast mass of ordinary duties of govern- 
ment devolving upon them, those duties which are so incon- 
spicuous and unnoticed, but so important for the welfare of 
the country. Search where you may, in no private business, 
corporate or individual, in this or any other country, can be 
found a higher standard of integrity, fidelity, and competency 
than exists today in the Government of the United States 
in all its Departments. 

Our country has not lived unto itself alone. It is at peace 
with all the world, but it is not the peace of isolation. We 
have grown so great that we are touching elbows with the 
people of every other country. Our vast trade seeks every 
market; our milHons of immigrants maintain ties of citizen- 
ship or relationship with every country; our travellers throng 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1908 237 

every foreign highway. We could not, if we would, escape 
from the responsibilities, the duties and the opportunities, of 
active membership in the community of nations. On that 
great international field we must play our part, whether we 
will or no. We must maintain and enlarge our trade; we 
must protect our citizens, native and naturalized, in every 
right; we must establish and maintain a strength of potential 
defense which shall discourage predatory attacks that our 
wealth would otherwise invite; we must render justice to all 
countries and to their people, so that there shall be no just 
cause for assaults upon us; we must promote friendly inter- 
course and better knowledge between our people and all 
others, so that there shall be no quarrels born of misunder- 
standing. Beyond all this, we must do our part according to 
the measure of our wealth and power, to promote the peace 
of the world, to encourage and to aid the weak, the unfortu- 
nate and the undeveloped peoples of mankind along the 
pathway of civilization, and to spread throughout the world 
the ordered liberty and justice which has been our heritage. 

In these things we have not failed. In the second great 
Peace Conference at The Hague the American representa- 
tives bore their part of useful service with distinction, and 
contributed in full measure to the results of the Conference, 
which constitute one of the greatest advances ever made 
towards the reasonable and peaceable regulation of interna- 
tional conduct. Twelve treaties agreed upon at that Con- 
ference all designed to reduce the probability or mitigate the 
horrors of war have been approved by the Senate and ratified 
by the President. 

Following the Conference, the United States has put itself 
definitely upon the basis of the peaceful settlement of inter- 
national disputes by concluding general treaties of arbitra- 
tion with England, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, 
Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Italy, Mexico, and 



^38 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

Japan. All of these have been confirmed by the Senate, and 
many others are in course of negotiation. 

Threatened tariff wars between the United States and 
Germany and the United States and France have been 
averted by commercial agreements under the power con- 
ferred upon the President in the third section of the Dingley 
tariff act. 

The long unsettled questions with Canada have been car- 
ried far along the way towards a conclusion. Under one 
treaty already made a commission is disposing of the last 
remaining questions of doubt and dispute along our three 
thousand miles of boundary. Under another treaty a com- 
mission is framing joint international regulations for the 
preservation of the food supply in the Great Lakes and other 
boundary waters. Under a third treaty we have agreed upon 
the submission to The Hague Tribunal of the century-old 
controversies relating to the Newfoundland fisheries, while 
pending this arbitration, from year to year, our fishermen are 
protected in their rights by a friendly modus vivendi. 

In China the boycott against American goods caused by 
Chinese exclusion has been abandoned, and China is herseK 
giving valuable aid towards preventing the emigration of her 
coolies to America. Under authority of Congress we are 
about remitting all the punitive part of the indemnity stipu- 
lated for after the Boxer rebellion, and the Chinese Govern- 
ment is of its own motion formulating a plan to apply the 
remitted part of the indemnity to the sending of Chinese 
students annually to be educated in the United States. 

All the wild outcries of the sensational press at home 
and abroad have failed to destroy the good understanding 
between the Governments of Japan and of the United States. 
The difficulties which arose in San Francisco have been dis- 
posed of. The two Governments are actively cooperating 
with perfect mutual understanding for the prevention of 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1908 239 

Japanese labor immigration into the United States. Our 
treaty of arbitration ratified during the past summer was 
followed by a treaty for the mutual protection of trade marks, 
copyrights and patents in China. On the special invitation 
of Japan we are making preparations to participate on a scale 
which we have never before attempted, in her great inter- 
national exposition which is to mark the fiftieth anniversary 
of the accession of her Emperor; and upon the special invi- 
tation of Japan our fleet is about to visit the harbor of Tokyo 
where it will be received with a hospitality not marred by a 
single discordant note. 

Our course in the Pan American Conference at Rio de 
Janeiro in 1906 and the friendly intercourse which has fol- 
lowed have dispelled the suspicion and distrust with which 
we were once regarded by the people of Latin America, and 
with the single exception of the irresponsible and abnormal 
dictator of Venezuela, genuine friendship and good-will 
bridge the gulf of race and language between ourselves and 
every people of the western hemisphere. 

Regarding the countries about the Caribbean Sea, whose 
nearness to the Panama canal route makes their fortunes of 
special interest to us, we have developed and followed a 
definite course of policy which may be described by saying, 
** We do not wish to take possession of any of those countries 
ourselves; we are not willing to have any other foreign nation 
take possession of them; and to prevent the necessity of the 
one or the possibility of the other, we do wish to help them 
govern themselves in peace and order and prosperity." 

That is the key to our treatment of Cuba. Under that 
policy we have made a treaty with San Domingo under 
which the presence of a single American civil oflScer, as 
receiver of customs, with the moral power of the United 
States behind him to demonstrate the hopelessness of any 
attempt at revolution, has substituted uninterrupted peace 



240 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

for continuous turmoil and bloodshed, has more than doubled 
the Government revenues, has brought about an adjustment 
of the debt and a restoration of solvency, and has established 
a revival of industry and of commerce. Under the same 
policy we have been collaborating with Mexico, once an 
enemy and now a close and valued friend, to mitigate the 
conditions of revolution and war among the Central Ameri- 
can states; and a peace conference during the past winter, 
under the guidance of the two greater countries, has resulted 
in a series of treaties and the establishment of an interna- 
tional Central American court for the settlement of dif- 
ferences — substantial advances along the slow and difficult 
pathway to established order. 

In the meantime the reorganization of our consular service 
and the practice of promotion for merit in the diplomatic 
service has increased the efficiency and usefulness of all 
our representatives abroad. We contributed substantially 
towards maintaining the peace of Europe in the Conference 
at Algeciras, and the greatest war of modern times was ended 
when Japan and Russia were brought together under the 
congenial influence of American conciliation in the Treaty 
of Portsmouth. 

The prosperity and well-being of our people as a whole 
correspond to the efficiency of the Government, which justly 
represents them. Never anywhere in the long history of 
mankind's struggles for better conditions, has there been 
among so many naillions of people so great a diffusion of 
wealth, such universal comfort of living, such ready rewards 
for industry and enterprise, such unlimited opportunities for 
education and individual advancement and such indepen- 
dence and dignity of manhood as in our country now. 

We are all familiar with the amazing statistics that mark 
our prosperity. Our foreign trade last year amounted to 
$3,315,272,503. The balance of trade in our favor last year 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1908 241 

was $446,429,653, and in the last four years it has amounted 
to $1,825,520,202. The value of our farm products last year 
was $3,958,000,000. According to the last census there were 
5,739,657 separate farms, and the live stock upon those 
farms is valued at $4,331,230,000. The value of our manu- 
factured products in 1905 amounted to $16,866,703,985. 
Our bank deposits of all kinds last year amounted to $13,077,- 
330,466. There were last year in the United States 8,588,- 
811 savings bank depositors, with an aggregate deposit of 
$3,495,410,087. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1906, 
there were instructed in the schools of the United States 
18,434,847 scholars, and of these 210,333 were students in 
universities, colleges, professional and technical schools. 
Churches and hospitals and hbraries abound. Associations 
for mutual aid and for public benefit number their members 
and their revenues by millions. Our people are keenly alive 
to the public interest and competent for the discussion of 
public questions. Expression of opinion is free as the air we 
breathe. Respect for law is general; disregard of it is the 
rare exception. At no time and in no country has mere 
wealth secured for its possessor less public consideration or 
have the high qualities of personal manhood availed so much 
for honor and opportunity. 

Government did not make these conditions, but they 
would have been impossible without wise and good govern- 
ment, and wise and good government is necessary to their 
continuance. Let us all put our shoulders to the wheel of 
reform. Let us press along in the path of progress, constantly 
improving conditions and leaving no class or condition of 
men who do not share in the improvement; but let us not 
forget that true reform proceeds, not by overturning or 
destroying in order to substitute the conjectural future of 
sanguine theory, but always by building steadily and surely 
on the safe foundations of all that is good in the present. 



242 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

Wisdom, skill, experience in the operations of government, 
practical capacity combined with honest purpose are neces- 
sary to make true reform effective. Without these, declara- 
tions and public speeches, however eloquent, and proposals, 
however attractive, are mere words and will never be realized. 
The substantial question for the voters to answer in Novem- 
ber is, how shall we secure a continuance of the good govern- 
ment under which we have attained to all our blessings; how 
select public agents who will maintain the peace and order 
and prosperity we now have; and at the same time press 
forward and make practically effective the reforms which this 
Republican Administration has inaugurated, and upon the 
value and beneficence of which all parties are agreed. 

Plainly the true successor to this great duty is Secretary 
Taft. His wise experience and long years of successful ser- 
vice under heavy responsibilities as jurist, legislator, admin- 
istrator, his intimate acquaintance with the public affairs 
of our country, internal and external, prove his wisdom, his 
skill, and his capacity. The confidence and sympathy and 
intimate association with which he has stood by and aided 
President Roosevelt in every stage of the policies which by 
the common consent of both parties now lie before us to be 
continued and developed in practical effectiveness, indicate 
him as the best possible man to continue those policies. The 
character that we know so well, with its courage, firmness, 
and energy, its unselfishness, modesty, frankness, and honor 
assures us of his honest purpose and his eminent fitness for the 
greatest of offices. 

The Democratic party announces as the issue of this cam- 
paign upon which it asks the voters of the country to take 
the powers of administration and legislation away from the 
party that has thus proved its competency, and to embark 
upon the experiment of Democratic control — as " the 
overshadowing issue " the question " Shall the people rule ? " 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1908 243 

Do not the people rule ? This is a representative govern- 
ment. It surely is not proposed to do away with representa- 
tion and have eighty-five millions of people make and execute 
their laws directly, without the intervention of legislative and 
executive agents. Are not the laws being made and executed 
by the agents whom the people have selected for that pur- 
pose ? I find that by the lawful returns of the last presi- 
dential election Theodore Roosevelt received 2,541,296 more 
votes for the Presidency than Alton B. Parker. Has he not 
a good title to the office ? Are not the people ruling through 
him, their chosen Executive, so far as his part of the govern- 
ment is concerned ? Has not every congressional district 
been represented in Congress by the man whom a majority 
of its voters selected ? Is not every state represented in the 
Senate by Senators chosen by its own legislature, selected 
by the people of the state for the performance of that very 
duty ? 

But Mr. Bryan gives specifications. He says there are 
three reasons why the people do not rule. 

First, because there is corrupt use of money at elections. 
Does he mean to say that the two millions and a half of votes 
which constituted Mr. Roosevelt's majority were bought; 
that to such a frightful extent the American electorate is 
venal ? Does he produce any evidence of such a charge ? 
Not the sHghtest. Does he produce any facts tending to 
sustain even a suspicion of the justice of such a charge ? 
None whatever. For one, I deny its truth, and I assert that 
American elections are fair and honest elections, and that the 
Government in Washington has been wielding the powers 
vested in it under the Constitution by the clear and unques- 
tionable will of the people of the United States. Campaign 
funds were raised and used in the last election by both parties, 
as they ought to have been raised and used. Mr. Bryan's 
managers are appealing for contributions of campaign funds 



244 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

today. The universal and intelligent discussion of great 
questions of public policy by the American people during a 
presidential campaign is the most useful and the most hope- 
inspiring school of government in the world. It is that which 
makes the people ever more competent to govern justly and 
wisely. No money expended to promote that great exercise 
of governing intelligence is ill-spent; and to furnish eighty- 
five million people with material for discussion, to reach 
them with information and argument and refutation of 
argument, and appeals, through public speech and through 
the mails and private canvass, requires organization, the 
labor of thousands of men and the expenditure of great sums. 
The repetition of small expenses among a great multitude of 
people spread over a vast territory mounts up with a rapidity 
difficult to realize. The postage on a single letter mailed to 
each of the fourteen million voters of the country amounts 
to $280,000. To such proper and useful purposes and to such 
purposes only was the Republican campaign fund of the last 
election devoted. 

The second reason why Mr. Bryan says the people do not 
rule is that we have not direct election of Senators, and he 
holds the Republican party responsible for not having pro- 
cured an amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States to provide for that. There is no more necessity for an 
amendment to the Constitution providing for the direct 
election of Senators than there is for an amendment to the 
Constitution providing for the direct election of President. 
If the people of any state wish any particular man to be 
chosen as Senator, they have only to instruct their legisla- 
ture, as the people of a considerable number of states make 
it their practice to do now, and no legislature will ever for a 
moment think of disobeying the instructions any more than 
presidential electors violate their obligations. The proposed 
amendment is simply to enable the people of each state to 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1908 245 

escape from the performance of the duty of electing a legls- 
latm-e that can be trusted. Are we prepared to abandon the 
performance of that duty ? Are we to assume that our state 
legislatures must necessarily and for all time be unfit to 
represent the people of the state ? If so, what becomes of 
the government of the state ? Is that with all its multitude 
of important duties to be left unfit ? If any state legislature 
cannot now be trusted, the true reform would seem to be in 
the direction of selecting the legislature. 

Speaking for myself alone, 1 believe that the selection of 
legislative candidates by direct primaries would be a mate- 
rial improvement, and would greatly increase the sense of 
immediate responsibility to their constituents on the part of 
the members of the state legislatures. In such primaries the 
voters could instruct their candidates if they saw fit and as 
they saw fit, regarding the selection of Senators. But that 
is a question the people of each state can settle for themselves 
without any amendment of the Constitution, and however 
they settle it, they rule in the way they prefer to rule. If any 
legislature under the Constitution does not choose a Senator 
who properly represents the people of the state, it is because 
the people of the state have failed in their duty in the selec- 
tion of their legislature. Let them perform their duty under 
the Constitution as it is, rather than clamor for an amendment 
to the Constitution to enable them to escape that duty. In 
the long run, to secure good government we must ultimately 
come down to the faithful performance of duty by the people 
of the country at the polls, and no expedient or change of 
form will take the place of that performance. 

The third reason why the people do not rule, says Mr. 
Bryan, is to be found in the rules of the House of Represen- 
tatives. The Denver convention declared in its platform 
that it " observed with amazement the popular branch of our 
Federal Government helpless to obtain either the considera- 



246 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

tion or enactment of measures desired by a majority of its 
members." Who makes the rules of the House of Represen- 
tatives ? Why, a majority of its members, and a majority 
can change them as it wilL Manifestly, there must be rules 
to control the conduct of the business of the House, or no 
business could be done. Over thirty thousand bills were 
introduced in the last session of Congress, and there are three 
himdred and eighty-six members. If one-tenth of the mem- 
bers had attempted to speak five minutes each on one-tenth 
of the bills that were introduced, working eight hours a day 
for the average legislative session and permitting the trans- 
action of no other business, they would have been speaking 
still, and the term of office of the entire Congress would expire 
before one-fourth of the one-tenth could be heard. Plainly 
there must be rules to limit oratory, to provide for the selec- 
tion of the measures which shall come up for discussion, and 
to provide for the transaction of the real business of legisla- 
tion. All legislative bodies have to adopt such rules, and the 
larger the body the more necessary are the rules and the more 
stringent they have to be. It is an invariable incident to the 
transaction of all legislative business that from time to time 
members who are not allowed to talk as long and as often as 
they please to the exclusion of others, and who cannot have 
the measure they are particularly interested in acted upon in 
preference to other measures, rise up and cry out against the 
rules, as the Democrats are crying out against them now. 
The real trouble is that the Democrats in the House of Rep- 
resentatives are a minority and cannot have their own way 
because they are a minority. The real Democratic grievance 
is, not that the majority does not rule, but that it does rule. 
The rules at present in force in the House of Representatives 
are those adopted under Speaker Reed when the Democratic 
members of the House had stopped all public business by 
refusing to answer to their names and insisting that imless 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1908 247 

they answered, although personally present, they could not 
be counted as making up a quorum. The amazement with 
which the Democratic party observes that those rules are 
still in force must be greatly increased by the knowledge of 
the fact that the same rules were continued and enforced by 
the Democratic House under the Democratic speaker, Mr. 
Crisp, when they succeeded to the Republican House over 
which Mr. Reed presided. 

Consideration of the paramount issue now proposed by the 
Democracy, " Shall the people rule ? ", forces the conclusion 
that the draftsmen of the Democratic platform are to be 
acquitted of the offense of insulting the intelligence of the 
American people by a piece of cheap buncombe, only because 
they have fallen into the confusion which beset the three 
tailors of Tooley Street, who began their proclamation " We 
the people of England ", and that they think the people do 
not rule because they do not themselves rule. 

The Democratic platform assails the Republican National 
Administration for the increase in the number of office- 
holders and the great expenditures of the Government, which 
the platform characterizes as extravagant. It demands that 
the National Government shall do a great variety of things 
which can be done only through the employment of numerous 
agents and the expenditure of great sums of money, but it 
declares the employment of the agents and the expenditure 
of the money to be unjustifiable and extravagant. It gives 
specifically the number of office-holders added and the num- 
ber of million dollars expended, but is silent as to the work 
that has been accomplished. In the numbers so given by the 
Democratic platform are included the carriers who deliver 
the mails upon the thirty-nine thousand rural free delivery 
routes. Would the Democratic party discharge them from 
office and stop the rural free delivery ? If not, is it honest 
for its platform to invite the condemnation of the people for 



248 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

the addition of these thirty-nine thousand letter-carriers 
without disclosing what they were for ? The increase of 
expense which it declares to be extravagant includes the 
cost of the Panama Canal. Would it stop work on the 
Canal ? If not, is it honest to include that cost in the figures 
of added expense which it calls extravagance and not dis- 
close the purpose for which the expense was added ? The 
employment of agents and the expenditure of money made 
necessary in the prosecution of trusts, the regulation of rail- 
roads, the prevention of rebates, the restoration of public 
lands, the conservation of natural resources, the regulation 
of immigration and of naturalization, the improvement of 
agriculture, the upbuilding of the navy, the extension of our 
foreign trade, all the vast activities of the National Govern- 
ment along the very lines that the Democratic party is 
insisting upon, are included in these figures which the Demo- 
cratic platform charges as extravagance without one word to 
indicate what is the fact, that full and necessary service was 
rendered by every additional officer and full value received 
for every dollar. The expenditures of the present Republican 
Administration have been well within the means of the 
country, and there remains to it in the Treasury a surplus 
of revenues collected during this Administration over and 
above the expenditures. Every additional office-holder 
employed and every dollar of increase of expenditure have 
been authorized by the direct representatives of the people 
of the United States in Congress as being wise expenditure in 
the public interest. Every dollar has been honestly expended 
in accordance with that authority, and in charging extrava- 
gance by a mere statement of the amount expended and the 
ninnber of officers employed, without any reference to what 
was accomplished, the Democratic party must stand con- 
victed of an attempt to mislead the people of the United 
States by the mere force of large figures. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1908 249 

The Democratic platfonn charges also that the action of 
the present Chief Executive in using the patronage of his 
high office to secure the nomination of Mr. Taft to the Presi- 
dency is " a violation of the spirit of our institutions." Is 
there a man of full age in the United States who does not 
know that the power which Mr. Roosevelt brought to the 
support of Mr. Taft's candidacy was not patronage but his 
extraordinary and phenomenal popularity and leadership 
among the masses of the people of the country, a popularity 
of which Mr, Bryan is now attempting to secure the benefit 
by declaring himself Mr. Roosevelt's natural successor ? Is 
there one who does not know that if Mr. Roosevelt had 
desired to perpetuate his power, he could have been nomi- 
nated by raising his finger, and that his advocacy of Mr. 
Taft's nomination was because it was necessary for him to 
secure the nomination of some one in order to prevent his 
own nomination ? Is there one who does not believe in his 
heart of hearts that the selection of Mr. Taft by Mr. Roose- 
velt as his candidate for the Presidency at the very moment 
when he himself was thrusting aside the Presidency, was 
with the honest purpose to secure the best possible adminis- 
trator of the great policies that were dear to his heart ? Is 
it to a dishonest purpose that Mr. Bryan claims to be the 
heir, and is it possible to ascribe a desire to perpetuate per- 
sonal power to the man who held the highest power in his 
grasp and rejected it ? 

It is but a short time since these same voices of detraction 
were charging the President with the purpose of usurping 
supreme and perpetual authority for himself. Yet he has 
proved himself capable of a renunciation of power excep- 
tional in history, and has contributed to our system of 
government a precedent which forever sets a limit upon the 
continuance of the presidential office. It is but a short time 
since these same voices were heard declaring that the Presi- 



250 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

dent's character was so rashly belligerent that his Presidency- 
would involve the country in certain war. Yet he has proved 
to be the greatest peacemaker of his generation. 

Mr. Bryan charges that the Republican party is respon- 
sible for the abuses of corporate wealth. As well might he 
charge that the man who plants cotton is responsible for the 
boll weevil, or that the man who plants fruit trees is respon- 
sible for the San Jose scale. Until the millennium has brought 
the eradication of human selfishness and greed, social abuses 
will come according to the shifting conditions of the times. 
Adversity and prosperity, wealth and poverty have each their 
own kinds of abuse. Constant vigilance and constant activ- 
ity to meet and put an end to abuses as they arise is the 
task of government and of good citizenship; but the work is 
never finished. The Republican party has produced the 
conditions which have made our great prosperity possible, 
and it is dealing with the evils which have been incident to 
that prosperity with vigor and effectiveness. 

There are two substantial proposals made by the Demo- 
cratic party as to the policy which it will follow if it is brought 
into power. 

One is that it will wipe out the protective tariff and sub- 
stitute a tariff for revenue only. I shall not discuss that 
proposition, but it ought not to be forgotten. The eleven 
years which have passed since the Dingley tariff was enacted 
have brought about many changes in the conditions to 
which the tariff law is applied. Many of these changes have 
resulted from the very prosperity which the protection 
afforded by the tariff has produced. In the nature of things, 
such changes must occur, and from time to time every tariff 
must be revised and adapted to the new conditions. As the 
period of revision, however, is always one of uncertainty and 
a consequent injury to business, revisions ought not to be 
made too often, or upon slight grounds. The Republican 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1908 251 

party has not considered that suflficient grounds for thus 
disturbing business have existed heretofore. It considers 
that sufficient grounds do now exist and it has pledged itself 
immediately after the fourth of March next to devote an 
extraordinary session of Congress to making such a revision 
in accordance with the true principles of protection. One of 
the questions that must be determined by the coming elec- 
tion is whether we shall have such a revision, or whether we 
shall have the principle of protection abandoned and a new 
tariff enacted in accordance with the principles of free trade, 
and containing only such duties as are necessary to raise 
revenue for the support of the Government without any 
protective purpose. 

The last time the Democratic party was in power it 
attempted such a change of policy and the result was the Wil- 
son-Gorman tariff of 1893. The very threat of such a pro- 
ceeding at that time stopped business, closed the mills, threw 
millions of men out of employment and was accompanied by 
universal business depression and disaster. Are we ready to 
repeat that experience now, as we surely shall if we put the 
Democratic party in power ? 

The other proposition of the Democratic platform is to 
require all national banks to guarantee the payment of 
deposits by all other national banks. This is another patent 
financial nostrum, advertised to catch the fancy of the multi- 
tude; and it should be suppressed under the pure food law 
until it is correctly labelled, " a measure to compel legitimate 
business to bear the risks of speculation." It might well be 
called a measure to destroy the national banking system, for 
who will wish to invest his money in a business where it is not 
merely subject to the risks assumed by the men whom he and 
his associates select to manage it, but is subject also to be 
called upon for the payment of an unlimited amount of 
debts of an indefinite number of persons over whom and 



252 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

whose obligations he and his associates have no control 
whatever ? 

A bank deposit is a very simple business transaction. The 
depositor in effect loans his money to the bank, which bor- 
rows it upon a promise to repay it on the lender's order, with 
or without a stipulated interest. Banks seldom fail to pay 
the debts thus contracted. Although the deposits are ordi- 
narily many times the capital, losses are exceedingly small. 
The principal reason why this is so is that bankers are 
ordinarily men who have established a good reputation in the 
community for honesty and business sense. People ordinarily 
will not risk their money by lending it to men who have not 
these claims to confidence. Under the law any one who can 
furnish $25,000 can start a bank, but in practice, as a rule 
no one can start a bank who cannot also furnish a character 
which leads the community to trust him and deposit their 
money with him. If, however, the sound and honest banks 
of the country guarantee the debts of every bank, a well 
earned reputation for honesty and business judgment will 
no longer be necessary as a part of the banker's capital. It 
will no longer be necessary for the community to consider 
whether a banker is honest or not. Any scalawag can start 
a bank and obtain deposits on the credit of all the banks of 
the country. Any one who wishes to use funds in speculative 
enterprises can start a bank, invite deposits and thus borrow 
money on the credit of the entire banking capital of the 
United States. With such opportunities who can doubt that 
the standard of character of the bankers of the country would 
deteriorate and the use of banking funds for speculative 
enterprises would increase and that the losses which the 
honest bankers would be required to make good would 
increase correspondingly ? 

This burden would fall not merely upon the stockholders 
of the banks, but upon the depositors also. Much banking 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1908 253 

capital would inevitably be driven out of the business and 
such as remained would have to make good its losses by 
reducing the rate of interest to its depositors and increasing 
the rate of interest upon loans. The profits of the banking 
business, like those of the merchant, the manufacturer, and 
the farmer, depend upon good management. The attempt to 
make all the profits of good management bear all the losses 
of bad management is a step in the socialistic process which 
would level all distinctions between thrift, enterprise, and 
sound judgment on the one hand, and recklessness, incapacity, 
and failure on the other. 

Except for campaign purposes there is no occasion for any 
such scheme. The business men of the country need no 
guarantee of bank deposits. They know with whom they are 
deahng when they select a bank for deposits, and their intel- 
ligence and knowledge of affairs are amply sufficient for their 
own protection in making the selection. The wage-earners 
of the country, the multitude of people of small savings, not 
familiar with business, so far as they live in places where 
there are savings banks, have practically perfect safety for 
their deposits, and over eight and a half millions of them are 
enjoying that safety now with a good rate of interest. For 
them if they prefer it, and for all those who live in places 
which are not accessible to savings banks, the Republican 
party proposes that the Government shall furnish absolute 
security through a postal savings bank, so that the wage- 
earner can deposit his savings at the nearest post-office and 
have the guarantee of the Government that it shall be 
returned; but that guarantee will be accompanied by the 
possession and control of the money itself, so that neither the 
depositor nor the Government can lose. This simple supple- 
ment to the banking and savings bank system meets every 
requirement, and, unlike the Democratic proposal, it has 
been proved safe and practicable by the experience of many 



254 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

countries and it violates no principle of sound finance or of 
common sense. 

What evidence of Democratic fitness to be entrusted with 
power is to be found in the record of its candidate for the 
Presidency ? It is with profound satisfaction that we recog- 
nize the purity and uprightness of Mr. Bryan's character, 
and we cannot withhold our admiration from the skill and 
attractiveness of his oratory; but when a candidate for high 
oflSce can furnish no evidence of fitness derived from the 
actual performance of official duty, and relies entirely upon 
what he proposes to do in the future, we must test, so far as 
we can, the soundness of his judgment by the substance of his 
proposals, not by his manner of presenting them. It was 
skillful for Mr. Bryan to say that he is bound by the omis- 
sions of the Democratic platform as well as by what it 
contains; but who dictated the omissions as well as the plat- 
form ? Can an omission of today wipe out public utterances 
of the past and remove them from memory as a basis for 
judgment upon the public man ? The same eloquent voice 
which now with so much confidence is telling us how the 
Government ought to be conducted was heard in Mr. Bryan's 
candidacy of 1896 urging upon the American people as the 
panacea for all evils and an absolute necessity for our pros- 
perity, the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 
sixteen to one. Was he right then ? Was his judgment sound 
then ? Would it have been wise for the people of the country 
to elect him President then in order to carry out the policy to 
which he was then devoted ? 

^ With the same confidence during his second candidacy he 
was heard to declare that the paramount issue before the 
American people was that of imperialism. Where is that 
issue now ? However tired some Americans may be of 
the burden of the Philippines, what must be our estimate 
of the political wisdom and sense of proportion for which 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1908 255 

in the year 1900 the so-called question of imperialism filled 
the horizon and obscured the sky as the one paramount 
issue before the American people ? 

On August 30, 1906, Mr. Bryan announced upon his return 
from Europe, as the result of deliberate reflection, that gov- 
ernment ownership of railroads was the cure-all demanded 
by the public interest. " I have reached the conclusion," he 
declared, " that there will be no permanent relief on the rail- 
road question from the discrimination between individuals 
and between places and from extortionate rates until the 
railroads are the property of the Government and are 
operated by the Government in the interest of the people." 
That declaration he has repeated many times in substance. 

The Republican party believes in the regulation of rail- 
roads. It believes that their managers ought to be made and 
can be made to obey the law. It believes that by an enforce- 
ment of the law, not spasmodic and sensational, but steady, 
firm and persistent, excessive and discriminating rates can be 
stopped; and it is now and has been for a considerable period 
engaged in such enforcement with marked efficiency and 
success. It proposes for the Presidency a candidate who de- 
clares his purpose to continue and complete that enforcement 
of the law and whose competency to do so with success has 
been proved. Mr. Bryan does not believe in the regulation 
of railroads. He does not believe it practicable. He regards it 
as bound to fail, although he is willing to criticize the Repub- 
lican party for not accomplishing that vast and complicated 
task all at once. 

It is natural to observe that if the people of the country 
desire railroads to be regulated, and the laws regarding them 
to be enforced, it would be wise to entrust that regulation to 
Mr. Taft, who believes in regulation and has faith in the wis- 
dom and effectiveness of the law, rather than to the hands of 
one who believes that all effort to regulate must prove futile. 



256 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

The chief importance of this subject, however, rests in 
the Hght it throws upon the candidate's qualification for the 
presidential office. It is an essential characteristic of our 
system of government that it aims to afford individual 
opportunity for enterprise rather than to exercise paternal 
control. Americans have all felt from the earliest times that 
undue extension of governmental power threatened liberty 
and tended to dull the initiative which has made us great as a 
nation. It has been only upon the most long continued con- 
sideration and with many doubts that we have yielded step 
by step to the enlargements of governmental regulation 
made necessary by the increasing complications of modern 
life and business. The apostle of the doctrine that the func- 
tions of government should be confined within the narrowest 
possible limits was Thomas Jefferson, whose disciple Mr. 
Bryan today professes to be. Under his inspiration the true 
Democratic party continually resisted the extension of gov- 
ernmental functions. It opposed the use of government 
moneys for internal improvements. It opposed the building 
of the Pacific railroads. It opposed the National Bank act. 
It denied the right of the National Government to impose a 
protective tariff. It has steadfastly maintained the broadest 
construction of state rights and the narrowest construction of 
national rights. Yet Mr. Bryan, while inscribing the name 
of Thomas Jefferson upon his standard, seriously proposes 
that the Federal Government shall not merely regulate the 
operations of railroads which are engaged in interstate 
commerce, but shall acquire and own and operate itself all 
the great railroads of the country. Consider for a moment the 
situation which would exist in the state of New York with 
the Federal Government owning and Federal officers in 
Washington controlling with all the rights of ownership the 
New York & New Haven, the New York Central, the West 
Shore, the Ontario & Western, the Delaware & Hudson, the 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1908 257 

Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, the Erie, the Lehigh 
Valley, the Baltimore & Ohio, and the Pennsylvania railroads. 
Consider the situation in Illinois with the Government con- 
trolling all the railroads that concentrate in Chicago; in 
Missouri the railroads that center in St. Louis. Add to that 
Mr. Bryan's proposal that no great interstate business shall 
be transacted — and all great business is interstate business 
— without the permission of the Federal Government evi- 
denced by a license; and you cannot fail to realize that he is 
prepared to see the state dwarfed into insignificance, and 
the farmer, the miner, the manufacturer, the merchant, all 
individual enterprise, not merely subject to restraint against 
wrongdoing, but dependent upon the Government, and upon 
a centralized Government at Washington for their very exis- 
tence. That is not reform: it is revolution. It is reversion 
to the ideas of paternal government from which America had 
happily escaped with her system of free individual oppor- 
tunity and enterprise and to the ideas out of which South 
America has been bravely struggling for a generation. And 
this is to be done in the name of Thomas Jefferson! 

Now Mr. Bryan proposes that under supervision of the 
National Government everybody shall provide for the pay- 
ment of everybody else's debts by his bank deposit guaranty 
scheme. 

Is it prudent to place in his hands the great power of the 
Presidency; and above all is it wise to give to him rather 
than to Mr. Taft, the experienced judge, the filling of the 
four vacancies in the Supreme Court of the United States 
which may be expected during the next Administration ? 

What is furnished by the record of the Democratic party 
at large to show that it is competent to maintain the pros- 
perity we have, and execute the promises of reform it tenders.'' 
No proof whatever of that is offered. All the evidence we 
have is the other way. The majority of us have not yet for- 



258 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

gotten the second administration of Grover Cleveland, which 
ended only on March 4, 1897. The Democracy then had its 
opportunity to show the world what it could do with govern- 
ment, for it possessed the Executive ofBce, a majority of the 
Senate and a majority of the House. Its opportunity to 
exercise that control for the public benefit was wasted. Dis- 
cord and confusion reigned throughout the entire four years. 
Incapacity to reach practical conclusions or to take any 
effective action was demonstrated. No promises were kept. 
No reforms were accomplished. It became apparent that 
the sole cohesive force that bound the Democratic party 
together was the desire for office, and once in office, instead 
of progress, we had all factions pulling different ways, totally 
incapable of agreeing upon a common course of conduct. 
There was but one sentiment in which a majority of the 
Democratic majority could be united; that was in hatred of 
Mr. Cleveland, and they hated him for his virtues. His 
sturdy integrity and high courage, his sincere convictions and 
patriotic purpose, his experience in government and strong 
practical sense afforded a leadership under which a party 
capable of government could have done great things for the 
country. The Democratic party repudiated his leadership, 
and the very men who now control that party followed him 
to his grave with depreciation and detraction. Under that 
discordant Democracy the country drifted through years of 
commercial depression and disaster, poverty and distress, 
without effective government, until the first election of 
McKinley and a Republican Congress placed the reins of 
power in the hands of a party competent to govern. 

Are the people of the United States ready to repeat that 
experience of Democratic government ? 



THE NEW YORK STATE CAMPAIGN OF 

1910 

ADDRESS AT THE MANHATTAN CASINO, NEW YORK, 
OCTOBER 28, 1910 

IT often happens that the result of an election depends upon 
what issues different voters think their votes will decide, 
many voting on one issue and many others voting upon 
another issue, with the result that nothing is decided except 
who shall hold office. The consequences of such an election 
are apt to be very different from anything a majority of the 
voters really desire. 

A good many Republicans at this time seem disposed to 
go a step farther and to ignore all the grave and substantial 
issues which are before the people of this state and to vote 
at the coming election upon no issue whatever but simply as 
an expression of feeling against Mr. Roosevelt, whose course 
regarding national affairs they disapprove for one reason or 
another, and whom they desire to punish by defeating the 
party to which they belong, in which they believe, and which 
they have long loyally supported, because he holds a dis- 
tinguished and potent place in the councils and the activities 
of the party. 

It should be observed that the declaration of this intention 
cuts both ways. Wherever a man declares he will vote 
against the Republican ticket because he does not like Roose- 
velt there will be others who will vote for the ticket because 
they do like Roosevelt and because they feel that with his 
tremendous force and courage and ability, he has done a 
noble and much needed work for honesty, purity, equality, 
and freedom in the pohtical life of our country. My guess 



260 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

would be that if the issue in this state were whether Mr. 
Roosevelt has reflected credit and honor upon the Republican 
party, on our state, and on our country, or the contrary, 
there would be a very large majority in the affirmative. I am 
not, however, going to discuss that question or to discuss 
him, for there is no such issue before the people of this state. 
The false assumption that there is such an issue tends to take 
away from the cause of honest and effective and progressively 
improving government in this state many of the supporters 
to whom that cause is entitled, and among them some of my 
old and valued friends. 

It is said that we must consider now the nomination for 
the Presidency in 1912. Well, Mr. Taft is President of the 
United States; a Republican President; a strong, wise, con- 
siderate, and fearless man. He has the qualities which make 
a man grow in the estimation of thoughtful people, and, 
lying back of all the clamor and excitement of our political 
life, the American people are a thoughtful people. He has 
grown and is growing and will continue to grow in public 
esteem. If he continues to make as good a President as he is 
making now he will be the natural and inevitable candidate 
of his party in 1912 unless one thing shall happen — that the 
people of the United States shall repudiate the administra- 
tion of Mr. Taft by such a crushing and overwhelming defeat 
of his party that it will be apparent that Mr. Taft cannot be 
reelected. The Democratic party cannot bring about such 
a result, but Republicans can by their adverse votes. After 
reelection people don't scrutinize the multitude of reasons 
which may have contributed to the result. They see only the 
general result, and if it should happen that the Administra- 
tion cannot hold its own party together the national con- 
vention would be quite likely to look for a Moses to lead them 
out of the wilderness, and they might go to Mr. Roosevelt or 
they might go to one of the far more radical leaders who are 



NEW YORK STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1910 261 

now looming up on the political horizon in the North and 
Middle West. Make no mistake, my friends: so far as this 
election in the state of New York bears any relation to 
national affairs, Republican votes for the Republican ticket 
strengthen the Administration in the party, and Republican 
votes against the ticket tend to weaken and break down the 
Administration. No one understands this better than Mr. 
Roosevelt. No one knows better than he that the strenuous 
efforts he is making in behalf of Republican candidates, not 
merely in New York but in a dozen other states, are services 
in aid of the Taft administration and tend towards the 
renomination of Mr. Taft in 1912. 

It is said that to have Mr. Stimson in the governor's chair 
would promote Mr. Roosevelt's political fortune. The 
people who say this do not mean what is undoubtedly true, 
that he will be such a governor as to reflect credit on every 
one who has supported him. In any other sense the proposi- 
tion is based on an entire misunderstanding of the man. Mr. 
Stimson is not the kind of man who will be successful politi- 
cally in distributing patronage and manipulating caucuses 
and delegates and conventions for or against any one. He 
would make a miserable failure if he tried it. He is a very 
strong, able man with exceptional independence and decision 
of character, perfectly fearless, absolutely upright, and with 
an intelligence of great natural vigor, thoroughly trained and 
guided by a genuine public spirit. He was selected as the 
candidate because he had done some things in public office 
which show what kind of man he is and which ought to be a 
guaranty to the people of the state that he is the kind of man 
they need for governor. No man can use him and no man 
can make a stepping-stone of him. He is as big and strong a 
man at forty-three as Taft or Roosevelt was at that age. He 
runs in that class. He is of the quality of which great public 
servants are made, and no matter how the vote goes next 



262 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

month, modest, unassuming, and unselfish as he is, a great 
career awaits him because he is such a man as the people 
greatly need. 

It is said we should consider in our votes at this election 
certain declarations Mr. Roosevelt has made — an attack on 
the courts, and something called New Nationalism. 

With due respect to the people who are talking in this way, 
I venture to assert that if three months hence they will look 
back at their utterances they will themselves see that this is 
arrant nonsense. There is a very old American saying that 
when a litigant does not like a decision it is his privilege to go 
down to the tavern and swear at the court. Everybody 
grumbles about decisions that he does not like, and Mr. 
Roosevelt appears to have done so out loud and in public, 
according to his temperament and habits. But I have never 
known the grumbling at decisions of the courts by people 
who do not like them to do any harm, and the idea that Mr. 
Roosevelt contemplates an attack upon our judicial system, 
or that that system is in danger from him or from any one else, 
is purely fanciful and devised for campaign purposes only. 

As for myself, I regard the power of the judicial branch of 
our government, both in the state and in the nation, to sit in 
judgment upon the constitutionality of legislative and execu- 
tive acts, as the chief contribution of America to the art of 
self-government. The power of the courts to declare unlaw- 
ful and void the acts of legislatures and executives when those 
acts do not conform to the great rules of right action 
embodied in our constitution, is the chief guaranty of per- 
manency in our institutions. It is the chief guaranty that 
our liberty shall be enjoyed without violating justice, and 
that justice shall be administered without destroying liberty. 
If the existence or exercise of that power by the courts in its 
full scope and authority were attacked, I should do my 



NEW YORK STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1910 263 

utmost, as I know you would do your utmost, to repel the 
attack and to maintain the dignity and the power and 
the permanence of our judicial system. 

The overwhelming mass of the American people feel the 
same way. Nobody really has the slightest idea of making 
Congress and the state legislatures superior to the Con- 
stitution, as they would be if the power of the courts to 
pass upon their acts were taken away. All this talk about an 
attack upon the courts and danger to the courts is mere idle 
campaigning and pretense. 

What is New Nationalism ? What is there beneath the 
phrase of new political or constitutional doctrine ? There 
may be something that I have not heard of, but I have been 
able to find nothing in it that was not taught in my class in 
the law school forty odd years ago; that has not been written 
large in the text-books on the Constitution since Marshall's 
time; that has not been part of the generally accepted belief of 
the American people for generations. I can see that some 
of the old doctrines that we have professed, we have grown 
lax and indifferent in applying; that some of the ideals to 
which we have done lip service and pen service, we have 
ignored in practice; that some old established principles have 
been treated as obsolete because we have failed to provide 
adequate means for applying them to new conditions. So 
far as I can see anything new in the so-called New National- 
ism, it is that there shall be a renewed and active sense of 
loyalty and of duty to the old doctrines and the old ideals of 
American democracy; that the nation, to the full limit of the 
power vested in it by the Constitution for the general welfare, 
and every state, to the full limit of its powers of local self- 
government under the Constitution, shall wake up to the 
duties pressing upon them, for intelligent government keep- 
ing pace in its effectiveness with the changing conditions and 



264 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

requirements of our time. That is all that I find new in the 
so-called New Nationalism, and I am heartily in favor of that 
and I know that you are heartily in favor of it. 

I have said that this idea of voting for or against Mr. 
Roosevelt, who is not a candidate, tended to make some of 
my Republican friends abandon the grave and substantial 
questions with which the people of the state ought to deal at 
this election. Such questions certainly are before us, and it 
will not be very creditable to the people of the state if they 
permit themselves to be diverted from dealing with those 
questions on their merits. 

What gave Mr. Roosevelt his leadership of the Saratoga 
convention ? He had no office; he had no patronage; he 
had no money; he could neither punish nor reward any one; 
and the controlling political organization of the Republican 
party was against him. How did it happen that a majority 
of the delegates voted with him and against the organiza- 
tion ? The answer is, that there was an issue before the 
convention in which the people of the state were deeply 
interested. Mr. Roosevelt espoused the right side of that 
issue against the Republican organization, and naturally 
enough he furnished the element of leadership to the side 
he was with. A majority of the delegates voted with him 
because upon that issue the people who elected them were 
wit^h him. The issue was a revolt against the tyranny of 
party machines and party leaders. It was a part of that 
great rebellion which has been going on all over the Union 
and in so many states has led to new political methods of 
varying merit — direct primaries; direct election of sena- 
tors; the initiative and referendum, and recall — all devices 
to enable voters to have their way notwithstanding political 
machines, and to deprive the professional politician of the 
opportunity to barter and trade for his own purposes, with 
the power to manipulate and control conventions and dele- 



NEW YORK STATE CA^IPAIGX OF 1910 265 

gallons and to confer nominations and appointments ' to 
office as his stock in trade. The feeling had been emphasized 
in this state by revelations of corruption in the legislature 
at Albany, of direct briberj' of organization legislators and 
indirect control of legislation through alleged political con- 
tributions. For three years Governor Hughes had waged an 
incessant warfare by \'igorous and outspoken appeals to the 
people of the state for reform in poHtical methods and eman- 
cipation from machine control. The organizations of both 
poHtical parties had stubbornly resisted the demand. A 
majority of the Democrats in the legislature, aided by a 
minority of the Republicans, had defeated not merely the 
direct primary' bill of the governor but the more moderate and 
tentative measure which the governor approved and which 
Seth Low and Joseph H. Choate and Henry L. Stimson 
and President Schurman of Cornell, and President Butler 
of Columbia, and a dozen other leaders of opinion in the 
state had petitioned the legislature to pass. It had become 
apparent to thoughtful RepubKcans that a majority of the 
RepubKcan vote of the state was with Governor Hughes 
and against the organization. President Taft had openly and 
repeatedly declared as early as April last his opinion that 
the interests of the party in the state of New York required 
that the management should be changed. The management 
declined to \4eld and it was plain that at the next state 
convention a struggle was to take place between the unor- 
ganized voters of the RepubKcan party who supported the 
demands of Governor Hughes, and the highly disciplined 
and skillful organization which opposed his demands. It is 
a matter of common knowledge that in Jime, shortly after 
Mr. Roosevelt returned from Europe, Governor Hughes 
induced him to come to the aid of the cause the governor 
represented and to announce his position by a telegram 
advising the passage of the moderate primary reform bill. 



266 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

So the lines were drawn for the September convention with 
Mr. Roosevelt on that side of the controversy. He did his 
part in the struggle with his customary force, ability, and 
natural qualities of leadership. It was not his fight; it was 
Governor Hughes's fight; it was President Taft's fight; it 
was the fight of the voters against the machine, it was your 
fight and mine; the fight of every man who loves good gov- 
ernment and believes it essential to democratic government 
that the great body of the people shall have a full, fair, and 
free opportunity for the expression of their will. With Mr. 
Roosevelt's aid and with his leadership, the voters of the 
party controlled the convention against the organization and 
turned the old organization out. They committed the party 
in the great deliberative assembly of its lawful represen- 
tatives to the principles for which Governor Hughes had 
contended and the policies for which President Taft had 
declared. We ought to be grateful to Mr. Roosevelt for the 
service he has rendered, and the voters of the state ought to 
reap the fruits of the victory he has helped them to win. 

Voters of the Republican party, where do you stand on this 
issue ? Do you wish to continue the same old methods of 
political control which have been characterized by the damn- 
ing facts disclosed in the Albany investigations ? Or do you 
wish for simpler and purer political methods, and full and 
unhampered opportunity to control your own political affairs, 
and party and public officers responsible to you rather than 
responsible to clever managers who control nominations in 
the old way ? If you are for the Hughes view of this ques- 
tion, then you must show it by your votes for the candidates 
who represent that view and are the standard-bearers in the 
fight for your equal and untrammelled opportunity. You 
will find no place in the Democratic party for the advocacy 
of such a view; for that party, whatever it may say in its 
platform, is sending back to the legislature the leaders and 



NEW YORK STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1910 267 

the great body of that band, who, with a minority of the 
Repubhcans in the last legislature, defeated the reform legis- 
lation of the last session. And it has delivered itself over to 
the complete control of Tammany Hall, the most flagrant 
organization of machine political control known to American 
politics. 

There is another subject of great moment that we have to 
attend to at this election. The state is engaged in engineer- 
ing works of enormous magnitude. It is spending one hun- 
dred million dollars upon the barge canal, fifty million dollars 
of state money for the construction of good roads, and fifty 
million dollars more from local municipalities for the same 
purpose, and an indefinite number of millions for the re- 
moval of grade crossings. That work is being done honestly, 
faithfully, and efficiently. Its conduct is characterized by 
the qualities of the Hughes administration. The Republican 
party proposes to continue for the prosecution of this work 
the state engineer, Mr. Williams, whose uprightness and 
efficiency have been proved; and for the great financial 
officer of the state it has nominated Mr. Thompson, of Troy. 
He has a clean and wholesome record, and is a man of the 
highest character. The Democratic party allotted these two 
great offices to Tammany Hall and nominated for them men 
named by Mr. Murphy. What Tammany Hall does with 
contracts we may learn from the Skene case. Skene was the 
state engineer and surveyor elected upon the Democratic 
ticket four years ago and in charge of the barge canal and 
road improvement work. He has been indicted and tried for 
helping contractors to defraud the state. In the particular 
case tried, it appeared that after the bids for a contract were 
opened the bid upon which the award was made was raised 
from $61,000 to $70,000, just under the next higher bid, so 
that the state, which, under the bid, was entitled to have 
the work done for $61,000, was made to pay for the work 



268 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

$70,000. The difference was divided between the contractor 
and somebody in the state engineer and surveyor's office. 
There were, I understand, many other similar cases, and the 
amount lost to the state by this course of proceeding is 
variously estimated at from $500,000 to $1,000,000. Skene 
was a product of Tammany Hall and his defense was, not 
that the fraud was not committed, but that the person respon- 
sible was an assistant appointed by him from Tammany Hall 
on the nomination of Murphy. He took refuge personally 
behind an assertion of his own incompetency, neglect of 
duty, failure to see the fraud being committed under his very 
eyes, entire failure to protect the interests of the state. No 
matter whether his defense was true or not, the incompe- 
tency, the neglect of duty, the fraud all belonged to Tam- 
many Hall. They are an illustration of Tammany Hall's 
dealing with public contracts and they are an illustration of 
what you have to expect if you put the prosecution of these 
great undertakings and the expenditure of these enormous 
sums of money into the hands of Tammany Hall officials for 
the next two years. 

What would you do if the same kind of situation arose in 
your private business ? Would you discharge the superin- 
tendent who had been proved to be faithful and efficient, and 
put the work and the control of the money into the hands of 
men with such credentials ? 

This is the private business of each one of us. Whether it 
be by direct taxation or indirect, whether the payments be 
from current revenues or the proceeds of bonds, sooner or 
later, in one way or another, the money honestly spent, the 
money wasted through incompetency and neglect of duty and 
the money divided by fraudulent officials with fraudulent con- 
tractors comes out of the pockets of the people of the state. 

A third subject of primary importance is the continuance 
of the Republican poHcy of just and adequate supervision of 



NEW YORK STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1910 269 

transportation corporations expressed in the Public Service 
Commission laws. Is that policy to be continued ? Are the 
Public Service Commissions to be maintained and streng- 
thened and made still more effective ? We know where the 
Republican party stands upon this, for it passed the laws. 
We know where Tammany Hall stands by the votes of its rep- 
resentatives. The Republican platform approves the Com- 
mission laws. The Democratic platform gives us but the 
meaningless generality, " We favor reasonable regulation by 
the state of public service corporations." What they con- 
sider reasonable no one knows. But we do know one thing, 
that they do not include under that head the public service 
commissioner, for we have the specific utterance of their 
platform in 1908 denouncing the commissions. The ques- 
tion has been put specifically to Mr. Dix by Mr. Stimson 
as to where he stands on this question and he has failed to 
answer. We have fair notice, then, that we may look for a 
reversal of this Republican policy of supervision by public 
service commissions, in case the Democratic party comes into 
power. Are the people of the state ready to reverse that 
policy ^ Are they ready to go back to the time when there 
was nowhere for a shipper to go if he was unjustly treated 
except to the legislature or to a law-suit ? To the time when 
strike bills in the legislature furnished a profitable occupa- 
tion, and transportation corporations went into politics in 
self-defense ? If not, if the voters of the state are in favor 
of this policy, which surely has been most beneficent in its 
effects both to the people of the state and to the corpora- 
tions themselves, the time to show it is by their votes in 
November. 

Upon these and a dozen other questions of importance, the 
action of the voters at the next election is of vital interest to 
the people of the state. It is important to choose intelli- 
gently and considerately between the two candidates for 



270 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

governor with regard to their personal merits as we know 
them. Mere respectabiHty is not enough to protect the 
interests of the state in the governor's chair. High abihty 
and force and character are needed there, and it is important 
for every one of us to have them there. What do we know 
of these two candidates ? 

We know of Mr. Stimson, the RepubHcan candidate, that 
under President Roosevelt's administration he was United 
States attorney in New York for several years, receiving a 
salary much less than he was making from private practice, 
and that at the close of that administration he retired from 
office to return to his private law practice; that he was then 
retained under President Taft's administration as special 
counsel to conduct prosecutions for certain frauds upon the 
customs revenue at the port of New York, again receiving 
for his work as counsel less compensation than he could have 
made in private practice or than he had been making before 
he went into the district attorney's office. We know that 
he administered the office of the district attorney in all its 
vast and varied affairs with conspicuous fidelity and success. 

We know that partly under one administration and partly 
under the other he did these specific things: he prosecuted 
the American Sugar Refining Company for receiving rebates, 
convicted it, and had it fined $18,000. He prosecuted it a 
second time for receiving rebates, convicted it, and had it 
fined $10,000, a.nd two of its officers fined $1,000 each. He 
prosecuted it a third time for receiving rebates, convicted it, 
and had it fined $10,000. He prosecuted it a fourth time for 
receiving rebates, convicted it, and had it fined $10,000. He 
prosecuted it a fifth time for receiving rebates, convicted it, 
and had it fined $50,000, and two of its officers fined $5,000 
each. He prosecuted the Brooklyn Cooperage Company, a 
subsidiary of the Sugar Company, for receiving rebates, con- 
victed it, and had it fined $70,000. He prosecuted the West- 



NEW YORK STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1910 271 

ern Transit Company for giving rebates, convicted it, and 
had it fined $10,000. He prosecuted the Chicago, Rock 
Island & Pacific Railway Company for giving rebates, 
convicted it, and had it fined $20,000. He prosecuted the 
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company for giving 
rebates, convicted it, and had it fined $20,000. He prose- 
cuted the New York Central Railway Company for giving 
rebates, convicted it and had it fined $108,000. By the time 
the $338,000 of fines had been imposed, traffic managers and 
big shippers began to realize that the law against rebates 
meant something, and we are told that the practice of rebates 
has come to an end. Show me another man anywhere who 
has done so much to give living force and effectiveness to 
that salutary law, or who is more entitled to the respect and 
gratitude of the small dealers who were being crowded out 
of business by the advantages their big competitors were 
gaining over them through discriminatory rates. 

We know that he prosecuted the National Sugar Refining 
Company for frauds against the customs and recovered from 
it $604,304.37; and that he prosecuted the great sugar con- 
cern of Arbuckle Brothers for similar frauds and recovered 
from it $695,753.19; and that he prosecuted the American 
Sugar Refining Company for similar frauds and recovered 
from it $2,135,486.32, making a total of $3,435,363.88. We 
know that he prosecuted criminally and convicted and had 
sentenced to the penitentiary the secretary of the American 
Sugar Refining Company, and the superintendent of the 
refinery of that company, and the superintendent of docks of 
that company and five other of the leading employees of the 
company, and that the president of the company was dead; 
and that he prosecuted and convicted the two United States 
weighers who were found to have been in complicity with the 
frauds. Show me another case of fraud upon a government 
where against great wealth and influence and power the hand 



272 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

of justice has been held so firm and the sword of justice has 
cut so deep. 

We know that it was upon his prosecution that Charles W. 
Morse, the rich and powerful New York banker, is expiating 
his sins of high finance in the Atlanta penitentiary. We 
know that it was he who compelled Edward H. Harriman 
to answer when he stood upon his alleged constitutional 
right to refuse information to the Interstate Commerce 
Commission. 

Do not suppose that all this was done without brains and 
skill and tireless energy and force of character in a man able 
to maintain himself against the greatest lawyers, even 
including my friend Judge Parker, as counsel for the Sugar 
Company, and against all the multitude of influences, per- 
sonal and professional, that these great and powerful defen- 
dants, their officers and directors could bring to bear for their 
protection. It seems to me that this is the kind of a man you 
need for governor of the state. Do you not think this man 
would make a good governor ? Would he not see that the 
law was enforced ? Would he not see that honesty ruled ? 
Would he not see that crime was punished ? Would he not 
see that every man had his rights and that no man had any 
privilege to diminish the rights of others ? 

What do we know about Mr. Dix, the Democratic candi- 
date ? He is a reputable gentleman, a director in a number of 
successful money-making corporations, well considered by 
his friends and neighbors in the city of Albany, very cautious 
in his statements about himself and a little loose in his state- 
ments about others. He has no public record and he appears 
to have come in contact with public matters of present 
interest only once. 

The point of contact was the tariff. The great difficulty in 
making an American tariff law always has been that all the 
manufacturers of the country flock to Washington with 



NEW YORK STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1910 273 

statements and affidavits and protestations, each one show- 
ing that his industry will be ruined by a reduction. Congress 
has before it nothing to oppose these statements except the 
arguments of people who have little personal knowledge of any 
particular business. There are no adequate means of testing 
the evidence of the manufacturers and reaching the true facts. 
With the vast growth and complication of our business we 
have outgrown our method of making tariffs. 

Nevertheless this Congress did make a pretty good tariff. 
There were things in it that I did not like and there were 
failures in it to do things which I thought ought to be done; 
but considering all the difficulties under which it was made 
it was a surprisingly good law and a great improvement on 
the law it superseded. Under it the average rate of duty has 
been about eleven per cent less than under the preceding 
tariff and less than under the Democratic Wilson law. Under 
it more goods have been admitted free of all duty than ever 
before in the history of our government — more free goods 
than ever before to an annual value of over a hundred mil- 
hon dollars; and under it the government revenues have been 
made adequate and a deficit has been turned into a surplus. 

Then, the Republican Congress inaugurated a great prac- 
tical reform by providing for a permanent board of tariff 
experts to get at the true facts to which the principle of pro- 
tection is to be applied and to prevent Congress from ever 
again having to make a tariff upon the ex parte statements 
of interested persons. 

Now the Democratic platform condemns that law and Mr. 
Dix personally denounces it and charges the Republican 
party with bad faith in not revising the tariff downward. 

Yet among the people who crowded the halls of the 
National Capital, making the lives of members of Congress 
a burden by their clamor against downward revision of the 
tariff, were the representatives of Mr. Dix's Standard Wall 



274 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

Paper Company. What they urged appears in this paper 
which I read from the Tariff Hearings for the Committee on 
Ways and Means, Volume 6, Page 6252 : 

BRIEF SUBMITTED BY REPRESENTATIVES OF THE WALL PAPER 
MANUFACTURERS ASKING FOR INCREASE OF DUTY 

Washington, D. C, November 21, 1910, 
Committee on Ways and Means, 

Washington, D. C. 
Gentlemen: — 

The wall-paper manufacturers whose signatures are hereto affixed 
respectfully ask your consideration of the effect produced upon the wall- 
paper industry by the rapidly increasing importation of wall papers, due 
to the low rate of duty applying to same under the present tariff, according 
to Schedule M, paragraph 402, law of 1897, wherein the duty is placed at 
twenty-five per cent ad valorem, and hope that our arguments will justify 
you in recommending a material increase in the rate of duty in order that 
the manufacturer may be afforded at least some relief from the present 
discouraging conditions, etc., etc. 

Then, after referring to the materials of which wall paper is 

made, the paper proceeds: 

We appreciate the fact that these so-called raw materials, as far as wall 
paper is concerned, are finished productions in themselves, and that it 
might work an injustice to other industries in this country to have the duty 
on such materials reduced, and, because of these facts, we ask for an 
increased duty on foreign wall papers. 

Among the signatures to this paper is " Standard Wall 
Paper Company, W. A. Huppuch, First Vice-President." 
This is the same Huppuch whom Mr. Dix and Mr. Murphy 
have made chairman of the Democratic State Committee to 
aid Mr. Dix in denouncing the Republican party for not 
revising the tariff downward. 

What inferences are we to draw as to the sincerity of the 
man who can take these two positions, one for his private 
interests and the other as a candidate for effect upon the 
public ? Is this gentleman not rather too — I will say — 
" adaptable " to be an ideal governor of the state ? 



NEW YORK STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1910 275 

Can any one doubt on what we know of these candidates 
which one of the two is the better fitted to protect the great 
interests of the state in the governor's chair at Albany ? 

My Repubhcan friends, no individual and no people ever 
got and held good, faithful, and effective service without 
recognizing and approving such service. If you would have 
your servants loyal and true you must be loyal and true to 
them in accordance with their deserts. Nor does any people 
succeed in any cause, whether it be to conserve what is good 
or to win forward in progress toward better things, unless 
it be by resolute adherence to purpose through long years of 
effort unswerved by temporary gusts of passion or prejudice. 
Our party is sound and wholesome. Since the last election, 
when it received general public approval it has given, both in 
Congress and in our state legislature, a great array of wise 
and useful legislation. It has uncloaked and punished its own 
wrongdoers. The administrations of President Taft in Wash- 
ington and of Governor Hughes in Albany have been models 
of uprightness and efficiency. The party still represents, and 
faithfully represents, better than any other political organ- 
ization does or ever has, the great fundamental principles 
upon which our country must stand if it shall continue pros- 
perous and deserving of prosperity. If you believe in Taft 
and Hughes and the men who with them and with you have 
been rendering loyal service to the country and to the state, 
then stand by them with your votes. Some of you are think- 
ing, because of a temporary side wind of personal feehng and 
prejudice, of deserting the cause for which we have been 
fighting together for many years, and giving aid and comfort 
to all that you most abhor in politics. I beg of you not to 
do so. You would gratify a momentary feeling, but you 
would do a harm to your country and to your state, and 
you would regret it hereafter. 



THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF REPUBLICAN 
ADMINISTRATIONS 

ADDRESS AS CHAIRMAN OF THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL 
CONVENTION, CHICAGO, JUNE 18, 1912 

I ELIEVE that I appreciate this expression of confidence. 
I wish I were more competent for the service you 
require of me. 

The struggle for leadership in the Republican party which 
has so long engrossed the attention and excited the feelings 
of its members is about to be determined by the selection of a 
candidate. The varying claims of opinion for recognition in 
the political creed of the party are about to be settled by the 
adoption of a platform. 

The supreme council of the party in this great national 
convention, representing every state and territory in due 
proportion, according to rules long since established, is about 
to appeal to the American people for a continuance of the 
power of government which the party has exercised with but 
brief interruptions for more than half a century, and that 
appeal is to be based upon the soundness of the principles 
approved, and the qualities of the candidates selected by the 
convention. 

In the performance of this duty by the convention, and in 
the acceptance of its conclusions by Republicans, is to be 
applied the ever-recurring test of a party's fitness to govern, 
its coherence and its formative and controlling power of 
organization. And these depend upon the willingness of the 
members of the party to subordinate their varying individual 
opinions and postpone the matters of difference between 

277 



278 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

them in order that they may act in unison upon the great 
questions wherein they agree; upon their wilHngness and 
capacity to thrust aside the disappointment which some of 
them must always feel in failing to secure success for the 
candidates of their preference; upon the loyalty of party 
members to the party itself, to the great organization whose 
agency in government they believe to be for the best interests 
of the nation, and for whose continuance in power their love of 
country constrains them to labor. 

Without these things there can be no party worthy of the 
name. Without them party association is a rope of sand, 
party organization is an ineffective form, party responsi- 
bility disappears, and with it disappears the right to pubHc 
confidence. 

Without organized parties, having these qualities of cohe- 
rence and loyalty, free popular government becomes a con- 
fused and continual conflict between a vast multitude of 
individual opinions, individual interests, individual attrac- 
tions and repulsions, from which effective government can 
emerge only by answering to the universal law of necessary 
organization and again forming parties. 

Throughout our party's history in each presidential elec- 
tion we have gone to the American people with the confident 
and just assertion that the Republican party is not a mere 
fortuitous collection of individuals, but is a coherent and 
living force as an organization. It is effective, responsible, 
worthy of confidence, competent to govern. The traditions 
of its great struggles for liberty, for the supremacy of law, for 
the preservation of constitutional government, for national 
honor, exercise a controlling influence upon its conduct. The 
lofty purpose of its great originators has been transmitted by 
spiritual succession from generation to generation of party 
leaders, and it is no idle rhetoric when we say, as we have so 
often said and are about to say again to the American people: 



REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATIONS 279 

" We are entitled to your belief in the sincerity of the 
principles we profess and the loyalty of our candidates to 
those principles, because we are the party of Lincoln, and 
Sumner, and Seward, and Andrew, and Morton, and Grant, 
and Hayes, and Garfield, and Arthur, and Harrison, and 
Blaine, and Hoar, and McKjnley." 

We claim that we are entitled to a popular vote of confi- 
dence at the coming election because we have demonstrated 
that we are the party of affirmative, constructive policies for 
the betterment and progress of our country in all the fields 
upon which the activity and influence of government can 
rightly enter. We claim it because we have shown ourselves 
a party of honest, efficient, and economical administration in 
which public moneys are faithfully applied, appointments are 
made on grounds of merit, efficient service is rigorously 
exacted, graft is reduced to a minimum, derelictions from 
official duty are sternly punished, and a high standard of 
official morality is maintained. We claim it because we have 
maintained and promoted peace with the world, and the 
dignity, honor, and just interests of the United States among 
the nations. We claim it because our party stands now, as 
it has ever stood, for order and liberty and for the mainte- 
nance of the constitutional system of government through 
which a self -controlled democracy for more than a century 
has established against all detractors the competency of the 
American people to govern themselves in law-abiding 
prosperity. We challenge the judgment of the American 
people on the policies of McKinley and Roosevelt and Taft. 

President Taft, in his speech of acceptance on July 28, 
1908, paid a just tribute to the great service rendered by his 
predecessor in awakening the public conscience, inaugurating 
reforms, and saving the country from the dangers of a pluto- 
cratic government. He instanced the Railroad Rate Law, 
the prevention of railroad rebates and discriminations, the 



280 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

enforcement of the Anti-trust Law, the Pure Food Law, the 
Meat Inspection Law, the general supervision and control of 
transportation companies, the conservation of natural 
resources, and he proceeded to say: 

The chief function of the next Administration, in my judgment, is 
distinct from and a progressive development of that which has been per- 
formed by President Roosevelt. The chief function of the next Adminis- 
tration is to complete and perfect the machinery by which these standards 
may be maintained, by which the law-breakers may be promptly restrained 
and punished, but which shall operate with sufficient accuracy and 
dispatch to interfere with legitimate business as little as possible. 

There spoke the voice of two Republican administrations, 
and the promise of that declaration has been faithfully 
observed with painstaking and assiduous care. The Repub- 
lican administration which is now drawing to a close has 
engaged in completing and perfecting the machinery, in 
applying the standards and working out the practical results 
of established Republican policies, including also the Mc- 
Kinley policies of a protective tariff and sound finance. 
Service of this kind is not spectacular. It receives little 
pubhc attention and little credit until the public mind is 
turned to a careful study of the subject, but it is of the highest 
importance. Great constructive national policies are not 
established by simple declaration or mere legislation or in a 
single day or in a single year. They always change conditions 
in order to better them. They encounter inveterate abuses. 
They are opposed and evaded in practice. They require to 
be applied and enforced by a strong hand and a firm will. 
They require to be perfected by administration and supple- 
mental legislation. Under Republican administrations there 
has been one unbroken, continuous course of consistent 
policy and effective performance in deaHng with the evils 
which have been naturally incident to the amazing industrial 
changes of our generation, the vast creation of new wealth. 



REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATIONS 281 

the increase of our population and the expansion of our com- 
merce. It rests with the American electorate to say whether 
they will permit those minor dissatisfactions which are 
inseparable from all human performance and the desire for 
change by which all men are sometimes affected, to obscure in 
their judgments the w^isdom of continuing the execution of 
these policies and the evil of chartering another and untried 
party for a new departure in governmental experiment. 

The Republican party stands now, as McKinley stood, 
for a protective tariff, while the Democratic party stands 
against the principle of protection and for a tariff for revenue 
only. We stand not for the abuses of the tariff but for the 
beneficent uses. No tariff can be devised so moderate, so 
reasonable, that it will not be rejected by the Democratic 
party, provided its duties be adjusted with reference to labor 
cost so as to protect American products against being driven 
out of the market by foreign under-selling made possible 
through the lower rate of wages in other countries. The 
American foreign merchant service has been driven off the 
face of the waters because with American sailors' wages and 
the American standard of living it could not compete with 
foreign shipping. The Democratic party proposes to put 
American mills and factories and mines in the same position, 
and the American people have now to say whether they wish 
that to be done. 

I have said that we do not stand for the abuses of the 
tariff. The chief cause of abuse has been that we have 
outgrown our old method of tariff-making. Our produc- 
tive industries have become too vast and complicated, our 
commercial relations too extensive, for any committee of 
Congress of itself to get at the facts to which the principle of 
protection may be properly applied. The Republican party 
proposes to remedy this defective method through having 
the facts ascertained by an impartial commission through 



282 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

thorough, scientific investigation, so that the President and 
Congress shall have the basis for the just application of the 
principle of protection. The Republican Congress included 
in the Payne- Aldrich bill a clause under which the President 
had authority to appoint such a board to make such inves- 
tigations and report the results to him. The President 
appointed the board. Its members are drawn from both 
political parties. Their competency, integrity, and fairness 
are unquestioned. They have reported upon the woolen 
schedule; they have reported upon the cotton schedule. 
The President has transmitted their findings to Congress. 
The Democratic House of Representatives ignores and repu- 
diates them. In January, 1911, the last Republican House 
of Representatives passed a bill to create a tariff commission 
with much broader and more effective powers for compell- 
ing the attendance of witnesses and securing information, 
charged to report its findings to the Congress. The bill 
passed the Senate with some amendment but it was delayed 
there by an avowed Democratic filibuster until it reached 
the House so late in the session that a vote upon it was pre- 
vented by another Democratic filibuster in the House. Now 
the House is Democratic and the Tariff Commission bill is 
dead. The Democratic party does not want the facts upon 
which a just protective measure can be framed, because it 
means that there shall be no protection for American indus- 
tries. In the last session and in the present session of Con- 
gress the Democratic House has framed and passed a series 
of tariff bills for revenue only, with complete indifference to 
the absolute destruction that their enactment would bring 
upon great American industries. Some of them have fallen 
by the wayside in the Senate and some of them have gone to 
the President to meet his wise and courageous veto. The 
American people have now to pass, not upon the abuses of 



REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATIONS 283 

the tariff, but upon the fundamental question between the 
two systems of tariff -making. 

The national currency, which the election of McKinley 
rescued from disaster at the hands of a Free Silver Democ- 
racy, still rests upon the Civil War basis of government 
bonds, and is no longer adapted to our changed conditions. 
It is inelastic; its volume does not expand and contract 
according to legitimate demands of business. It subjects us 
to constant danger of panics which begin in speculation and 
end in paralyzing business. It facilitates and promotes the 
arbitrary control by a small group of banks and bankers with 
enormous capital, and tends to an undue concentration of the 
money of the country in a few great money centers. Any 
possible remedy involves the study of world-wide finance, 
because we are no longer isolated and money flows from city 
to city and country to country in accordance with the laws of 
demand and supply and the attraction of interest rates. No 
Congress could by its ordinary methods get beyond the sur- 
face of the vast and complicated problem, yet the working 
out of a new system adapted to American conditions is of 
vital importance to the prosperity of the country and the 
security of every business and of every man whose support 
is directly or indirectly dependent upon American business. 
For the solution of this question the policy of the Republican 
party established a Monetary Commission, which has made 
a most thorough and exhaustive study of the financial 
systems of all civilized nations, of their relations to our own 
system, and the needs of American business. The Com- 
mission has reported a bill for the establishment of a new 
system of reserve associations under which the currency will 
be elastic, the business of the country will find ready sale for 
its commercial paper, the people of the country at large will 
exercise control instead of a little group of large bankers, and 



284 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

the danger of panics will disappear. The President has rec- 
ommended the conclusions of the Commission to the Con- 
gress, where the proposed bill is under consideration. It is 
for the interest of every business man in the United States 
that the party controlling the government shall not be 
changed until this policy has been carried into execution. 

In order that the burdens of government support may in 
time of need be more justly proportioned to the means of 
our citizens, the last Republican Congress submitted to 
the legislatures of the states an income tax amendment of the 
Constitution, and at the same time, upon the recommendation 
of the President, enacted a law — which has been sustained 
by the Supreme Court — imposing a tax upon corporations, 
measured by their income, so that this vast fund of invested 
capital may bear its fair share of the public burdens. At the 
rate of only one per cent upon corporate income, the receipts 
from this source during the past year amounted to over 
thirty million dollars. 

Upon the recommendation of the President the powers of 
the Interstate Commerce Commission have been greatly 
enlarged and their control over railroad rates and railroad 
service made more effective. Railroad rebates have been 
vigorously prosecuted and the imposition of large fines has 
substantially ended the practice. Upon prosecutions of rail- 
road discriminations and fraudulent importations at the 
custom house, under the vigorous treatment of the Treas- 
ury Department and the Department of Justice, the fines 
and recoveries of the past three years have amounted to over 
nine million dollars. 

The prosecution of trusts and combinations in violation 
of the Sherman Act has proceeded with extraordinary vigor 
and success. The Standard Oil Company has been dissolved 
by a suit begun under Roosevelt and brought to a successful 
conclusion under Taft, through a judgment in exact accord- 



REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATIONS 2S5 

ance with the prayer of the complainant. The Tobacco 
Company has been dissolved and its property scattered 
among fourteen different companies, with stringent injunc- 
tions against common control, which, in the unanimous 
opinion of the four judges of the Circuit Court of Appeals, 
were fully adequate to accomplish the relief demanded. The 
beef packers, the wholesale grocers, the lumber dealers, the 
wire makers, the window-glass pool, the electric lamp com- 
bination, the bath tub trust, the shoe machinery trust, the 
foreign steamship pool, the Sugar Company, the Steel Cor- 
poration, the Harvester Company — all have been made to 
feel the heavy hand of the law through suits or indictments 
against restraints and monopolies. 

Throughout that wide field in which the conditions of 
modern industrial life require that government shall inter- 
vene in the name of social justice for the protection of the 
wage-earner, the Republican national administrations in 
succession have done their full, enlightened, and progressive 
duty to the limit of the national power under the Constitu- 
tion. The Act of March 4, 1907, to regulate the hours of 
service of railroad employees, passed under the Roosevelt 
administration, has been sustained in the Supreme Court 
under the Taft administration and has been enforced by 
more than fifteen hundred prosecutions during the past three 
years. A valid and effective Employers Liability Act apply- 
ing to all interstate commerce was passed by a Republican 
Congress on April 5, 1910, and under the Republican admin- 
istration its constitutionality has been sustained in the 
Supreme Court. Upon the President's recommendation a 
joint commission was created by Congress to study the sub- 
ject of workmen's compensation for injuries. It was com- 
posed of members of both Houses, with a representative of 
the railroads and a representative of labor, and after exhaus- 
tive examination and hearings the commission framed a bill 



286 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

whicli was approved by all the great railroad labor organiza- 
tions and which was passed by a Republican Senate at the 
present session against the opposition of a majority of the 
Democratic Senators. That bill still slumbers in the Demo- 
cratic Judiciary Committee of the House. The Safety Appli- 
ance Act has been strengthened by increased powers in the 
Interstate Commerce Commission and has been enforced by 
nearly a thousand prosecutions during the past three years. 
The joint representative of the great orders of Railway 
Conductors, Railway Trainmen, Locomotive Engineers, and 
Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, says in his report on 
national legislation for 1911 regarding that department of 
the present national administration especially concerned in 
the enforcement of these laws: 

Justice to one who has been faithful to his trust demands from every 
representative of the railroad men of the United States some recognition 
of the splendid work of the Attorney-General in the enforcement of all the 
acts of Congress relating to the safety of railroad employees, and limiting 
their hours of service. It has been work faithfully and successfully per- 
formed. Both in the defense of our rights in the courts and in assistance 
rendered us in the preparation of proposed legislation, his work has been of 
a high order of abihty and has been tendered in a spirit of fidehty to the 
basic principles of fair play to all men. 

The newly created Bureau of Mines and the newly author- 
ized Children's Bureau mark the limit to which the National 
Government can go towards improving the conditions of 
intrastate labor without usurping the powers of the states. 
The Pure Food Law has been enforced with vigor and effec- 
tiveness. There have been over five hundred prosecutions 
for violations of that law within the past year and more 
than a thousand cases within the past three years. More 
than five hundred shipments of adulterated and misbranded 
foods and drugs have been condemned and forfeited, and 
enormous quantities of injurious food material have been 
destroyed. 



REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATIONS 287 

The conservation of natural resources has been in the 
hands of its friends. The process of examining and separat- 
ing the timber and the agricultural land in the great forest 
reserves, established at the close of the last Administration, 
has proceeded under the present Administration in accordance 
with the original plan. The study of the water resources 
of the country and the recording of the flow of streams 
have gone on under the Geological Survey. Classification 
and appraisal of coal lands and their restoration to entry at 
discriminating prices based upon the classification has been 
extended to over sixteen million acres of a total valuation 
of over seven hundred and twelve million dollars. The enor- 
mous petroleum deposits and phosphate deposits and water 
power sites belonging to the Government have been examined 
and classified and the data prepared for the needed legislation 
to regulate their disposition. Construction under the arid 
land reclamation projects has been pressed forward, and 
over fifty thousand people are now living upon the reclaimed 
land. 

Great reforms have been made in the economy of the 
public service. A commission appointed by the President 
has been examining all the departments of government 
operating under the antiquated statutes passed generations 
ago with a view to applying in them the labor-saving and 
money-saving methods which have made the success of the 
great business establishments of our country. In the Treas- 
ury Department alone, where the reforms first received their 
effect and can best be measured, over eighteen hundred 
places have been abolished, and this with increased efficiency 
of service, and without discharging any one but simply by 
not filling vacancies as they occurred. The savings effected 
in the administration of this one department amount approxi- 
mately to $2,631,000 per annum. The same policy in the 
Post Office Department has made that department self- 



288 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

supporting for the first time in thirty years, and has changed 
a deficit of $17,479,770.47 in 1909, caused especially by the 
increased cost of rural free delivery, to a surplus of $219,- 
118.12 in 1911. In the meantime the great Republican policy 
of rural free delivery has been advanced so that the rural free 
dehvery routes now number 42,199, covering a mileage of 
1,210,447 miles. In the meantime also the new Republican 
policy of the postal savings system has been successfully 
inaugurated under the Act of June 25, 1910, beginning experi- 
mentally with a few offices, and now, after eleven months of 
operation, extending to seventy-five hundred presidential 
post offices and $11,000,000 of deposits. 

The army has been made more efficient. The great pro- 
cess of training not only the regular army but the militia by 
means of officers of instruction and joint operations has been 
pressed forward to the end that if war unfortunately comes 
upon us we shall have, for the first time in our history, a great 
body of trained American citizens competent to act as officers 
of the volunteer force upon which we must so largely depend 
for our military defense. The test of mobilization of the 
regular army in Texas during the summer of 1911, with its 
rapidity of movement and freedom from disease, has exhib- 
ited a record of competency and ability most reassuring and 
satisfactory. 

The navy has improved its organization and decreased its 
expenses, has increased its preparedness and military effi- 
ciency, has improved its marksmanship and skill in seaman- 
ship and evolution, and has reorganized and reduced the cost 
of the system of construction, repair, and supply. 

The execution of the regular and established program of 
adding two battleships to the fleet annually to take the place 
of the old ships which from year to year grow obsolete, and 
to maintain the position of our navy among those of the great 
powers, has met with a reverse in the refusal of the Demo- 



REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATIONS 289 

cratic House of Representatives to appropriate any money 
for the construction of battleships, and the question now 
stands between the RepubHcan Senate and the Demo- 
cratic House as to whether our navy shall be maintained or 
shall be permitted to fall back to a level with the weaker and 
unconsidered countries of the world. What is the will of the 
American people on that question ? 

The construction of the Panama Canal has been pressed 
forward with renewed evidences under the concentrated 
observation of all the civilized world, that America possesses 
constructive genius, organizing power, and habits of honest 
administration, equal to the greatest undertakings. It is 
manifest now that the work will be done in advance of the 
time fixed and within the cost estimated, and that during the 
coming year it will be substantially completed. Will not 
the American people consider whether they have no grateful 
appreciation of the honor brought to us all by the great thing 
that has been done on the Isthmus ? When the wonderful 
procession of ships takes its way for the first time through 
the canal between the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific, 
will the people of America wish that the honors of that 
greater than a Roman triumph be given, not to the men who 
executed the great design, but to the men who opposed and 
scoffed and hindered and sought to frustrate the enterprise, 
until in spite of them its success was assured .'' 

In oiu- foreign relations, controversies of almost a hundred 
years over the Northeastern fisheries have been settled by 
arbitration at The Hague. The attempt to preserve the fur 
seal life of the Alaskan islands, in which we were defeated 
twenty years ago in the Behring Sea arbitration, has been 
brought to success by diplomacy in the Fur Seal Treaty with 
Great Britain, Japan, and Russia. The delicate questions 
arising from the termination of our treaty regulating trade 
and travel with Japan have been disposed of by a new treaty 



290 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

satisfactory to both nations and to the people of both coasts 
of our own nation. Our tariff relations with all the world 
under the maximum and minimum clause of the Payne- 
Aldrich bill have been readjusted. The Departments of 
State and Commerce and Labor have promoted the extension 
of American commerce so that our foreign exports have 
grown from $1,491,744,641, in 1905, to $2,013,549,025, in 
1911, and the balance of trade in our favor for 1911 was 
$522,094,094. American rights have been asserted and 
maintained and peace with all the world has been preserved 
and strengthened. 

With this record of consistent policy and faithful service 
the Republican party can rest with confidence on its title to 
command the approval of the American people. We have 
a right to say that we can be trusted to preserve and main- 
tain the American system of free representative government 
handed down to us by our fathers. At our hands it will be 
no empty form when the officers of the National Government 
subscribe the solemn oath required of them by law, " That I 
will support and defend the Constitution of the United States 
against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear 
true faith and allegiance to the same." 

We shall not apologize for American institutions. We 
cherish with gratitude and reverence the memory of the great 
men who devised the American constitutional system — their 
unselfish patriotism, their love of liberty and justice, their 
lofty conception of human rights, their deep insight into the 
strength and the weakness of human nature, their wise 
avoidance of the dangers which had wrecked all preceding 
attempts at popular government, their breadth of view which 
adapted the system they devised to the progress and develop- 
ment of a great people. We will be loyal to the principles 
they declared and to the spirit of liberty and progress, of 



REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATIONS 291 

justice and security, which they breathed into that immortal 
instrument. 

No government which must be administered by weak and 
falHble men can be perfect, but we may justly claim for our 
government under the Constitution that for a century and a 
quarter it has worked out the best results for individual 
liberty and progress in civilization yet achieved by govern- 
mental institutions. Under the peace and security which it 
has afforded, not only has our country become vastly rich 
but there has been a diffusion of wealth which should inspire 
cheerful confidence in the future. Witness the 9,597,185 
separate savings bank accounts, with $4,212,583,598 de- 
posits in the year 1911. Witness the 6,361,502 farms, and 
the value of farms and farm property of $40,991,449,090 in the 
year 1910, a value more than doubled between 1900 and 
1910. Witness the stream of immigrants pouring in from all 
countries of the earth to share the happier lot of labor in our 
fortunate land — 9,673,973 of them since 1901. Nowhere 
on earth is there such unfettered scope for the independence 
of individual manhood; nowhere greater security and com- 
petency for the family home; nowhere more universal advan- 
tages of education for rich and poor alike; nowhere such 
universal response to all demands of charity and noble plans 
for relieving the distress and improving the condition of man- 
kind; nowhere a more ready quickening of public spirit under 
the influence of high ideals; nowhere the true ends of govern- 
ment more fully secured, than in the life of America today 
under the government of the Constitution. 

We will maintain the power and honor of the nation, but 
we will observe those limitations which the Constitution sets 
up for the preservation of local self-government. This coun- 
try is so large and the conditions of life are so varied that it 
would be intolerable to have the local and domestic affairs 



292 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

of our home communities, which involve no national rights, 
controlled by majorities made up in other states thousands 
of miles away, or by the officials of a central government. 

We will perform the duties and exercise the authority of 
the offices with which we may be invested, but we will 
observe and require all officials to observe those constitu- 
tional limitations which prescribe the boundaries of official 
power. However wise, however able, however patriotic, a 
congress or an executive may be, however convinced they 
may be that the doing of a particular thing would be bene- 
ficial to the public — if that thing be done by usurping the 
powers confided to another department or another officer it 
but opens the door for the destruction of liberty. The door 
opened for the patriotic and well-meaning to exercise power 
not conferred upon them by law is the door opened also to 
the self-seeking and ambitious. There can be no free govern- 
ment in which official power is not limited, and the limitations 
upon official power can be preserved only by rigorously 
insisting upon their observance. 

We will make and vigorously enforce laws for the promo- 
tion of public interests and the attainment of public ends, 
but we will observe those great rules of right conduct which 
our fathers embodied in the limitations of the Constitution. 
We will hold sacred the declarations and prohibitions of the 
Bill of Rights, which protect the life and liberty and prop- 
erty of the citizen against the power of government. We 
will keep the covenant that our fathers made, and that we 
have reaffirmed from generation to generation, between the 
whole body of the people, and every individual under na- 
tional jurisdiction. It is a covenant between overwhelming 
power and every weak and defenseless one, every one who 
relies upon the protection of his country's laws for security to 
enjoy the fruits of industry and thrift, every one who would 
worship God according to his conscience, however his faith 



REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATIONS 293 

may differ from that of his fellows, every one who asserts his 
manhood's right of freedom in speech and action — a solemn 
covenant that between the weak individual and all the power 
of the people and the people's officers shall forever stand the 
eternal principles of justice declared, defined, and made 
practically effective by specific rules in those provisions which 
we call the limitations of the Constitution. That covenant 
between power and weakness is the chief basis of American 
prosperity, American progress, and American liberty. It is 
because we have always observed it that we are not torn by 
dissension and revolution and civil war and alternating 
anarchy and despotism like so many of our sister republics 
whose unhappy fortune we deplore. With all our pride in 
our vast material prosperity, in our successful institutions 
and our advance in civilization, we would not be boastful and 
vainglorious, for we come of God-fearing people, and we 
have learned the truth taught by religion that all men are 
prone to error, are subject to temptation, are led astray by 
impulse. We know that this is as true in government as it is 
in private life, for the freedom that some of our fathers 
sought was freedom of conscience from the control of majori- 
ties; and our party was born in protest against the extension 
of a system of human slavery approved and maintained by 
majorities. We know that there is no safe course in the life 
of men or of nations except to establish and to follow de- 
clared principles of conduct. There is a divine principle of 
justice which men cannot make or unmake, which is above 
all governments, above all legislatures, above all majorities. 
Conformity to it is a condition of national life. The Ameri- 
can people have set up this eternal law of justice as the guide 
for their national action. They have formulated and ex- 
pressed it in practical rules of conduct established by them 
impersonally, abstractly, when no interest or impulse or 
specific desire was present to sway their judgment. Upon 



294 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

submission and conformity to these rules of justice depends 
our existence as a nation; and as we love our country and 
hope for the continuance of its peace and liberty to our 
children's children, we should humbly and reverently seek 
for strength and wisdom to abide by the principles of 
the Constitution against the days of our temptation and 
weakness. 

With a deep sense of duty so to order our country's govern- 
ment that the blessings which God has vouchsafed to us may 
be continued, we can be trusted to keep the pledge given 
to the American people by the last Republican national 
convention: 

The Republican Party will uphold at all times the authority and integ- 
rity of the courts, state and federal, and will ever insist that their powers 
to enforce their process and to protect life, liberty, and property shall be 
preserved inviolate. 

We must be true to that pledge, for in no other way can 
our country keep itself within the strait and narrow path 
prescribed by the principles of right conduct embodied in our 
Constitution. 

The limitations upon arbitrary power, and the prohibitions 
of the Bill of Rights which protect liberty and insure justice 
cannot be enforced except through the determinations of an 
independent and courageous judiciary. 

We shall be true to that Republican pledge. The great 
courts in which Marshall, and Story, and Harlan sat will not 
be degraded from their high office. Their judges will not be 
punished for honest decisions; their judgments will be re- 
spected and obeyed. The keystone of this balanced and 
stable structure of government, established by our fathers, 
will not be shattered by Republican hands; for we stand 
with Alexander Hamilton, who said, in The Federalist'. 

For I agree that there is no liberty where the power of judging be not 
separate from the legislative and executive powers: 



BEPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATIONS 295 

we stand with John Marshall, who said, in Marbury vs. 
Madison : 

To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limita- 
tion committed to writing, if these limitations may, at any time, be passed 
by those intended to be restrained ? 

and we stand with Abraham Lincoln, who said, in his First 
Inaugural : 

A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations 
and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinion and 
sentiment, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it 
does of necessity fly to anarchy or despotism. 



THE RENOMINATION OF PRESIDENT TAFT 

SPEECH AS CHAIRMAN OF THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL 

CONVENTION OF 1912, NOTIFYING MR. TAFT OF HIS 

NOMINATION, WASHINGTON, AUGUST 1, 1912 

As chairman of the Republican National Convention of 1912, Mr. Root was 
charged by the convention to convey formal notification of his renomination as the 
Republican candidate for President of the United States to William H. Taft. This 
official notification was conveyed to the President at the White House on August 1, 
1912, in the following address: 

R. PRESIDENT, the committee of notification here 
present has the honor to advise you formally that on 
the twenty-second day of June last you were regularly and 
duly nominated by the national convention of the Republican 
party to be the Republican candidate for President for the 
term beginning March 4, 1913. 

For the second time in the history of the Republican party 
a part of the delegates have refused to be bound by the action 
of the convention. Now, as on the former occasion, the 
irreconcilable minority declares its intention to support 
either your Democratic opponent or a third candidate. The 
reason assigned for this course is dissatisfaction with the 
decision of certain contests in the making up of the temporary 
roll of the convention. Those contests were decided by the 
tribunal upon which the law that has governed the Republi- 
can party for more than forty years imposed the duty of 
deciding such contests. So long as those decisions were made 
honestly and in good faith, all persons were bound to accept 
them as conclusive in the making up of the temporary roll 
of the convention, and neither in the facts and arguments 
produced before the national committee, the committee on 
credentials and the convention itseK, nor otherwise, does 

297 



298 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

there appear just ground for impeaching the honesty and 
good faith of the committee's decisions. Both the making 
up of the temporary roll and the rights accorded to the per- 
sons upon that roll, whose seats were contested, were in 
accordance with the long-established and unquestioned rules 
of law governing the party, and founded upon justice and 
common sense. Your title to the nomination is as clear and 
unimpeachable as the title of any candidate of any party 
since political conventions began. 

Your selection has a broader basis than a mere expression 
of choice between different party leaders representing the 
same ideas. You have been nominated because you stand 
preeminently for certain fixed and essential principles which 
the Republican party maintains. You believe in preserv- 
ing the constitutional government of the United States. You 
believe in the rule of law rather than the rule of men. 
You realize that the only safety for nations, as for individ- 
uals, is to establish and abide by declared principles of action. 
You are in sympathy with the great practical rules of right 
conduct that the American people have set up for their own 
guidance and self-restraint in the limitations of the Constitu- 
tion — the limitations upon governmental and official power 
essential to the preservation of hberty and justice. You 
know that to sweep away these wise rules of self-restraint 
would be not progress, but decadence. You know that the 
great declarations of principle in our Constitution cannot be 
made an effectual guide to conduct in any other way than by 
judicial judgment upon attempts to violate them; and you 
maintain the independence, dignity, and authority of the 
courts of the United States. You are for progress along all 
the lines of national development, but for progress which 
still preserves the good we already have and holds fast to 
those essential elements of American institutions which have 
made our country prosperous and great and free. You rep- 



THE RENOMINATION OF PRESIDENT TAFT 299 

resent the spirit of kindly consideration by every American 
citizen toward all his fellows, respect for the right of adverse 
opinion, peaceable methods of settling differences — the 
spirit and the method which make ordered and peaceful 
self-government possible, as distinguished from intolerance 
and hatred and violence. 

In respect to all these things our country is threatened from 
many sides. It is your high privilege to be the standard- 
bearer for the cause in which you believe; and in that cause 
of peace and justice and liberty, the millions of your country- 
men who believe as you do will stand with you, and the great 
party which was born in the struggle for constitutional 
freedom will support you. 



THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN 
OPPOSITION 

ADDRESS AS TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN OF THE REPUBLICAN 

STATE CONVENTION AT SARATOGA SPRINGS 

NEW YORK. AUGUST 18. 1914 

THIS New York Republican State Convention meets 
under novel conditions. For the first time, the state 
convention has no power to nominate candidates for office. 
Under the new primary law the candidates will be selected 
by the voters of the party at the primary election on the 
twenty-eighth of September. The first and most obvious 
duty of the Republicans of the state and of the members of 
this convention representing them, is loyal and effective 
acceptance of the primary election law. It is true that the 
law is defective. In some respects it reads as if it had been 
framed with a view to get credit for a popular act rather than 
with a view to make a practical working statute. In some 
respects the act seems as if it were designed to perpetuate 
and strengthen the control of political managers rather than 
to give the voters real and effective freedom of choice. Prob- 
ably the law can be much improved; but the only way to 
bring about the improvement is to submit the law to the test 
of practical application, to put it in operation in good faith, 
and then whatever defects there are, will become manifest 
in such a way that it will be easy to cure them. 

Nevertheless this convention was necessary. The primary 
law provides that any party may hold " party conventions 
to be constituted in such manner and to have such powers in 
relation to formulating party platforms and policies and the 
transaction of business relating to party affairs as the rules 

SOI 



302 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

and regulations of the party may provide not inconsistent 
with the provisions " of the law. Such a convention as this 
statute contemplates was necessary, first, to consider and 
agree upon a platform upon which the candidates of the 
party, when chosen, are to stand and by which the people of 
the state may be informed of the principles to be applied in 
government if the Republican candidates are elected. This 
is something which cannot be done by the voters at the pri- 
mary. Their action is limited by the law to the selection of 
candidates. It is something which ought not to be done by 
any self-constituted and irresponsible person or group 
assuming to act for the party, but it should be done in the 
open, by accredited representatives of all parts of the state. 
It cannot be done by the candidates when selected because 
that would be a reversal of the fundamental idea of political 
parties, which is that the people of a country divide accord- 
ing to the differences of their political views upon matters of 
greatest importance, and, upon one side and another, the 
voters who agree among themselves upon these fundamental 
questions subordinate all minor differences of feeling and 
opinion and unite to select candidates who will give effect to 
their common judgment. To hand the party declaration of 
principles over to the candidate after his selection would be 
to deny the whole rational basis of American party govern- 
ment, upon which this new primary election law depends. It 
would be to make the principles of the party depend upon the 
opinions of the candidate instead of having the candidate 
stand upon the principles of the party. And it would trans- 
form our system of parties into purely personal followings of 
popular leaders, — which Heaven forbid, because that basis 
of political action always has been and must be inconsistent 
with orderly and effective popular self-government. 

The second duty which the convention has to perform is to 
consider, and 1 assume to approve, the proposal of the 



THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN OPPOSITION 303 

National Committee of the party to make representation in 
national conventions conform more closely to the Republi- 
can vote in the several states and to leave the method of 
selecting the delegates to the regulation of the Republicans 
in each state. The most salient effect of this change will be a 
considerable reduction of representation from the Southern 
States, where a very small Republican vote is cast. 1 assume 
the proposed change will be approved because the represen- 
tatives of the state of New York have steadfastly voted for 
such a change in successive national conventions, and the 
Saratoga convention of 1913 expressly declared in favor of it. 
The reason for acting now is that if the rules are to be 
changed for the next national convention, it must be done 
before the delegates to that convention are elected. The 
present rules of the party regulating representation in na- 
tional conventions were adopted in 1880, after much dis- 
cussion by the national convention, at which the late Senator 
George F. Hoar presided, and James A. Garfield was nomi- 
nated for President. Those rules are binding upon the 
National Committee. If they remain unchanged it will be 
the duty of the National Committee to issue a call in accord- 
ance with them for the election of delegates to the next 
national convention, and when the delegates have been 
elected they will be entitled to seats in accordance with those 
rules. They will constitute the convention. Delegates can- 
not be elected under one set of rules upon one basis of repre- 
sentation and given or denied seats under some other rule and 
upon a different basis of representation. 

The third duty of the convention is to represent the Repub- 
lican voters of the state in consulting about the policy to be fol- 
lowed by the party in selecting candidates so that the voters 
may act effectively at the primary election with a common 
purpose to secure party success at the regular election. In 
substance this consultation and any conclusions which we 



304 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

may reach, any opinions we may express, any advice we may 
give, will relate to the subject of geographical distribution of 
candidates. At the coming primary the Republicans of the 
state are to select candidates for twenty-four offices to be 
filled by the voters of the entire state. These are: United 
States Senator, Judge of the Court of Appeals, Governor, 
Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Comptroller, Attor- 
ney-General, State Treasurer, State Engineer and Sur- 
veyor, and fifteen delegates-at-large to the constitutional 
convention. In so large a state as this and with so many 
offices to fill, it is important to party success that every 
section of the state shall have the kind of interest in the 
ticket selected at the primary which comes from having 
upon it a candidate who is known and trusted in that 
vicinity; and it is important for government after the elec- 
tion that the officers in the state government and in the 
constitutional convention shall be in touch with all parts of 
the state and familiar with the interests and opinions of all 
the people of the state. It would be unfortunate if all these 
candidates who are to be selected should prove, as the result 
of the primary, to be residents of one city or county. Yet 
something like that might happen if in each place the Repub- 
licans were to vote at the primary, as they very naturally 
might, for residents of their own vicinity, or if the voters of 
one large place were to vote in that way, while the Republi- 
cans of all the rest of the state divided among a great number 
of candidates. The result of such voting would be that the 
candidates of the one place which voted solidly for its own 
residents would have a plurality among a great multitude of 
candidates while they were really the choice of only a small 
minority of the Republicans of the state. How to avoid such 
a result is a serious question. How may these candidates 
be distributed so that in all parts of the state there will be 
active personal interest in the success of the Republican 



THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN OPPOSITION 305 

ticket and so that all parts of the state will find real knowl- 
edge and comprehension of their needs in the new govern- 
ment. Our opponents will have no such trouble. More 
than one-half of the normal Democratic vote of the state is 
cast in the city of New York, and the great mass of those 
voters, following the directions of their local party organiza- 
tion, will distribute the nominations as that organization 
directs. The voters in the Republican primary, scattered 
through sixty-two counties, unbossed, will follow nobody's 
direction, but will act each according to his own judgment, 
and it will be necessary that they shall themselves consider 
what will be the effect of their action in regard to the distri- 
bution of candidates. There should be comparatively little 
difficulty in this respect in making the nominations for the 
chief offices, the Governor, the United States Senator, and 
the Judge of the Court of Appeals. The candidates for these 
offices will naturally be men known throughout the state, and 
the voters at the primary will probably be affected more by 
their knowledge of the men and their records than by local 
considerations. 

On the other hand, it seems that it will be quite impossible 
for the voters to make up a list of fifteen delegates-at-large 
to the constitutional convention properly distributed through 
the state without some previous understanding among them- 
selves regarding their action. The voters themselves would 
not know who were suitable and available candidates in 
other localities. The voter in Saint Lawrence or Cattarau- 
gus would know very little as to who ought to go to the con- 
vention from New York or Brooklyn, and the voter in New 
York or Brooklyn would have no better knowledge as to who 
ought to go from Saint Lawrence or Cattaraugus. Men 
suitable to be delegates-at-large to the convention cannot be 
expected to make a campaign in order to bring themselves to 
the knowledge of the voters of the entire state. Men may 



306 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

do that for the governorship or for the senatorship, but not 
for the position of delegate to the constitutional convention. 
The time and eiffort and expense would be prohibitory. 
There seems to be no way of reaching a wise result in regard 
to these offices except for the representatives of the Repub- 
lican voters who ar^ convened here to ascertain who are avail- 
able and suitable for delegates-at-large to the convention 
from all parts of the state, and then advise the Republican 
voters of the result in the form of a recommendation, leav- 
ing the voters to accept as much or as little of the recom- 
mendation as they choose. 

As to the other state offices, the wise course to follow is 
more doubtful. It may well be, however, that by simple 
comparison of views, facilitated by this gathering and with- 
out any recommendation from the convention, such unity 
of action can be obtained that the designation by petition of 
candidates for those offices to be passed upon at the primary 
may be so distributed that no unbalanced or injurious result 
will follow. 

There is, however, a broader question presented to all 
Republican voters by the new primary law — a question 
upon which the convention itself can take no action, but 
which the members of the convention ought to consider and 
discuss here among themselves and with their constituents 
upon their return to their homes. That question is: What 
is to be the effect of the primary law upon the cohesion and 
unity of the party, its capacity for united effort, its posses- 
sion of a common spirit, the willingness of its members to 
subordinate minor differences in order to secure the triumph 
of the principles upon which there is party agreement ? Are 
the bonds of habit, of tradition, of sentiment, of sympathy, 
of opinion, and of faith, which have held together this great 
organization, wiser and more competent than any of its 



THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN OPPOSITION 307 

members, and have made it a potent agency for orderly 
self-government, to be dissolved ? 

We are to have a campaign of personal controversy, of 
personal attack and defense in which great bodies of voters 
within the party will be arrayed in hostile attitudes toward 
each other. Whoever is nominated will find a great faction 
of the Republican voters themselves disposed to be un- 
friendly to him, possessed of unfriendly opinions regarding 
him, smarting under defeat. Will they turn around and give 
him active support ? Will they come out and vote for him ? 
If they do not, then success at the primary is but a prelude 
to defeat at the polls, and the primary contest is but a means 
for the destruction of the party. 

The first duty of Republicans is to see to it that no such 
result shall happen; and to accomplish this two things are 
necessary. The first is, that every Republican who votes at 
the primary election shall do so under a sense of honorable 
obligation to accept and stand by the result whatever it is. 
No man has any right to vote at a primary unless he is willing 
to do that. No man can honestly vote at a primary intending 
to accept the result if he succeeds and to repudiate it if he 
fails. Somebody must fail, but the good old American way 
in which our free popular government has been maintained 
is that the defeated do not sulk or desert or take to the woods; 
but stand by the result, conscious that other days are to 
come, and in the cheerful hope that the defeated of today 
may be the victors of tomorrow. The other necessary thing 
is, that this primary contest shall be conducted not as be- 
tween enemies but as between friends, members of the same 
party and anxious for a common success; with good temper 
and courtesy, and not with malevolence and denunciation; 
that no ammunition be manufactured for the enemy; that 
no wounds be inflicted that cannot be healed, no wrongs done 



308 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

that cannot be forgiven, no breaches opened that cannot be 
closed, when the success of the party requires that its 
members act together. 

These things can be accompHshed only by the aroused, 
intelligent, earnest, loyal public opinion of the party, and, 
unless an appeal can be made with success to that opinion, 
the primary law will be a failure as a means of expressing the 
party's will or the party will have proved itself unfit to 
govern because incapable of self-control. 

For the first time in eighteen years the Republican party 
of the state comes to the election of its state government 
and its national representatives as the party of opposition 
both in the state and in the nation. We are about to appeal 
to the voters of the state for a judgment upon the conduct 
of government by the Democratic party at Albany and in 
Washington. I shall not undertake to argue the case which 
we can make, but briefly to indicate what seem to me some 
of the most important considerations which form a part of 
that case. 

The Democratic party took possession of the national 
government a year and a half ago with a program of policy 
by which they proposed to set free every American from the 
incubus of too great success by others, to reduce the cost of 
living, and to give new life and prosperity to American pro- 
duction and commerce, and more ample and certain returns 
to American industry. Their program has been followed 
along three main lines relating to the tariff, the financial 
system, and the control of trusts and corporations. The 
tariff was to be for revenue only, and by removing protection 
it was to set free American industry and reduce the cost of 
living. You know and your constituents know better than 
I can tell you whether these results have been accomplished. 
Have the rewards of American industry been increased ? 



THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN OPPOSITION 309 

We all know that they have not; but that on the contrary 
production has been decreased. Many mills and factories 
have closed or are running but a part of the time. Great 
numbers of American employees have been thrown out of 
work. The domestic market which formerly furnished them 
employment has been to some considerable degree turned 
over to foreign production. The imports of foreign products 
for the fiscal year 1914 exceeded those for the preceding year, 
ending June 30, 1913, to the extent of $80,917,423; that is 
to say, nearly $81,000,000 which would have gone to keep 
American production active and American workmen em- 
ployed has been paid to foreign producers. New markets 
have not been opened abroad to counter-balance this trans- 
fer of our purchases, for our exports in the fiscal year 1914 
were less than our exports in the preceding year, 1913, by 
$101,305,001. So that American production during this 
past year has been diminished in its foreign market and 
superseded in its domestic market to the extent of over 
$182,000,000. In the meantime the domestic market for 
our production has been still further diminished because the 
multitude of workmen who are not employed have lost the 
greater part of their purchasing power and the producers 
and the merchants who are making little or no profit are 
obliged to curtail their expenses. 

And yet the cost of living has not been reduced. We 
all know that it has not. And it seems that if it ever is to 
be reduced by the working of Democratic policies it will be 
through the distressing and painful cause that the American 
people have become wholly unable to pay the cost. Nor has 
this tariff, for revenue only, been successful as a producer of 
revenue. The customs revenues of the United States for the 
fiscal year 1914, with its $81,000,000 of increased importa- 
tions, fell short of the customs revenues for the preceding 
year by $26,132,740.77. 



310 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

The American people have many times sustained the policy 
of protection for American industry by overwhelming majori- 
ties; but in the few years which preceded the elections of 
1910 and 1912 the people had become impatient with what 
they believed to be unjust and excessive protection for par- 
ticular interests. Persistent charges that the high cost of 
living was due to the tariff, and the spectacle of great wealth 
amassed in large enterprises had created an impression of 
protection profitable almost exclusively to the owners and 
very httle to the workmen in our manufactories and mines. 
The special and expert advocates of the tariff allowed the 
system to be tried upon its abuses rather than upon its merits. 
But when the Democratic party came into power it did not 
attempt to reform abuses of the protective tariff. It repu- 
diated the protective theory altogether and undertook to 
make a tariff which should not protect. Under the last 
administration the Republicans in Congress had made an 
earnest effort to prevent further tariff abuses by reforming 
the method of making the tariff. They put into the tariff 
bill of 1909 a provision under which an expert, non-partisan 
tariff commission was appointed by President Taft and 
entered upon a careful, thorough, scientific investigation of 
the facts upon which could be determined, in regard to every 
branch of production, what would be a fair and reasonable 
protection based upon the amount of labor entering into the 
production of each article and upon the comparative con- 
ditions at home and abroad. The Congress also passed a 
further measure, by separate bill, providing for a tariff com- 
mission of broader and more specific powers to report to 
Congress the results of its investigation; but this bill was 
delayed by a Democratic filibuster in the Senate and then 
by a Democratic filibuster in the House until the close of the 
Sixty-first Congress, and the advent of a Democratic House, 
March 4, 1911, prevented it from becoming a law. Then the 



THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN OPPOSITION 311 

new Democratic House starved the existing tariff commission 
out of existence by refusing appropriations to enable it to go 
on with its work. The Democrats who made the present 
tariff bill scorned the assistance of a tariff commission. They 
did not care to know what would be reasonable and fair 
protection because they intended to give no protection. 
They believed, sincerely, I do not doubt, that the manu- 
facturers, and miners, and farmers who had been maintain- 
ing the protective system by their votes for so many years 
had been receiving undue and unfair advantages by the pro- 
visions of the tariff law, and they could not restrain a certain 
feeling of hostility to the men they had been opposing for so 
long and to the industries in which those men were engaged. 
The present tariff was made under the influence of that feel- 
ing. Perhaps the time has now come when the American 
people are ready again to try the protective system upon its 
merits, and to call for legislation inspired by a spirit of 
friendship for American industry. 

Although eight months have passed since the Banking 
and Currency Act became a law, it has not yet been put into 
operation, while the proposed legislation against trusts and 
corporations has not yet been completed. Those measures, 
however, have not been without their effect upon the welfare 
of the country. The various forms in which they have been 
cast, the discussions upon them, the avowed objects, the 
unavowed but ill concealed objects, the spirit of the dominant 
party in dealing with them, all have combined to impress the 
enterprise of the country with a sense that the government is 
hostile. Assurances to the contrary do not avail against the 
general weight of evidence derived from conduct. Where are 
the new undertakings, the new investment of capital, the new 
employment of labor, the extensions, the enlargements, the 
new departures of active enterprise, which should mark the 
passing years of a vigorous and progressive people in the mid- 



312 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

course of developing a vast, rich country ? Enterprise hesi- 
tates; it waits, irresolute and fearful, because, under the 
dominance of a party which has shown such jealousy and 
envy of business success, they are afraid of what government 
may do to them and to their prospective customers and to 
their hoped-for opportunities. In this great country, in 
which practically all production must seek far distant mar- 
kets and practically all demand must seek far distant sources 
of supply, the worldng of the vast and complicated system of 
industrial exchanges requires great investments and great 
organizations. The business cannot be done otherwise. 
Those organizations and those investments halt in doubt. 
No one knows whether the railroads and steamship lines of 
the country are to be permitted to earn their interest and 
dividends. No one knows whether great industrial or com- 
mercial organizations, however scrupulously they obey the 
law, are to be permitted to continue. No one knows when 
the malice and misrepresentation of a disappointed com- 
petitor or the loose declamation of a demagogue may bring 
the vast new inquisitorial powers of government down to 
destroy credit and ruin an undertaking. Enterprise halts 
because it distrusts and fears the Democratic party. In the 
meantime, while private enterprise is repressed, government 
control grows. It has been discovered that by graduating 
the income tax and fixing a high exemption, practically the 
entire tax may be drawn from the great industrial communi- 
ties of New England, the Middle States, and the Central 
West, while the disposition of the money raised by taxation 
may be determined by the representatives of other parts of 
the country which have paid none of the tax; so that one set 
of Americans is to pay the money and another set of Ameri- 
cans is to spend it. Accordingly, there has been in Congress 
an entire absence of that sense of responsibility for the ex- 
penditure of government money which comes from account- 



THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN OPPOSITION 313 

ability to constituents who pay the money. New schemes 
have been devised to distribute in the places where it will 
do the most good the money taken from rich states by 
taxation; $35,000,000 has been voted to build railroads in 
Alaska; $25,000,000 has been voted by the House to be 
expended upon good roads all over the United States, and 
that is the prelude to good road schemes running up into the 
billions. In a multitude of ways the desire is apparent that 
to prevent the investment of capital from being profitable, to 
prevent money being made in private enterprise, the gov- 
ernment shall step in, secure the capital by taxation, and 
carry on the business itself. Vast and uncontrolled powers 
over the life and activity of the American people are being 
vested in government commissions. The Interstate Com- 
merce Commission has control of the railroads. The Fed- 
eral Reserve Board is to have control of banks and bankers 
and of the credits of the country. The Trade Commission is 
to command the disclosure of the private affairs of all indus- 
try, with the tremendous power of blackmail, destruction of 
credit, and ruin, which that involves. The Internal Revenue 
Bureau may carry inquisitorial proceedings into the private 
affairs of every individual. We are rapidly pressing towards 
the point where if enterprise is to live it must curry favor of 
government, and thrift must follow fawning. 

What wonder that the country begins to look back to the 
conditions which the Democratic party has been destroying. 
The years between the census of 1900 and the census of 1910 
were the last decade of Republican control. During that 
period the manufacturing capital of the country increased 
from $8,975,000,000 to $18,428,000,000; the value of manu- 
factured products from $13,004,000,000 to $20,672,000,000; 
the value of the materials used in manufacture from $6,575,- 
000,000 to $12,141,000,000; the number of employees en- 
gaged in manufacture from 5,076,000 to 7,405,000; the 



314 POLITICAL .\DDRESSES 

wages and salaries paid to the employees of manufacture 
from $^2,730,000,000 to $4,365,000,000; the exports of the 
country from $1,394,000,000 to $1,744,000,000; the number 
of sa\dngs bank depositors from 6,107,000 to 9,142,000; the 
amount of their deposits from $2,389,000,000 to $4,070,000,- 
000; the value of farm property from $20,439,000,000 to 
$40,991,000,000. \Miich party has done the better by the 
country ? 

I shall leave to others the painful task of pointing out the 
corruption, the profligacy, and the incompetence, which have 
characterized the government of oiu: state under Democratic 
control. The people of the state are not ignorant of the way 
in which the Democratic party has served them. They will 
long carry the burden of debt which has been put upon them 
"udthout benefit. And they feel the humiliation of the 
scandals in Albany and New York. But where have fraud 
and corruption and theft been hunted down and brought to 
justice and pimished, except where there chanced to be a 
Repubhcan prosecuting officer ? WTiy is it that under a long 
series of Republican state administrations we had honest 
government and under Democratic administrations we have 
had waste and graft and a plundered treasury ? It is not 
because there are not good and honest men in the Democratic 
party. It is not because there are not bad men in the Repub- 
hcan party. It is because in the Democratic party of the 
state of New York, taken as a whole, the base and malign 
influences control and get the better of the honest men, while 
in the Republican party, as a whole, the honest and patriotic 
influences control and sustain the honest men. Because 
the Repubhcan party, as a whole, is fit to govern and the 
Democratic party, as a whole, is not. 

"VMiich party do the people of the state of New York wish 
to put in power on the first of the coming year ? 



THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN OPPOSITION 315 

In this controversy with the Democratic party the Repub- 
hcan party stands alone. The threat of a third party which 
alarmed so many Republicans two years ago and still vexed 
us one year ago has practically disappeared. It is now 
plain that it never had any real substance apart from the 
powerful personality of Mr. Roosevelt. This is unmistak- 
ably indicated by the statistics of recent enrollments and 
votes. In Pennsylvania, where 447,426 votes were cast for 
Progressive electors in 1912, the recent total vote in the 
Progressive primary was but 46,782, while the Republicans 
polled in their primaries 96,000 more votes than both the 
Progressives and Democrats. In California, where there 
were but scattering Republican votes at the last presidential 
election, the Republican enrollment exceeds that of either 
Democrats or Progressives by more than 160,000, and comes 
within 1,800 of equalling both together. In South Dakota, 
which gave a 10,000 Progressive majority, a conservative 
Republican has been nominated for United States Senator by 
a majority of 9,000. In the Maryland senatorial election the 
Republican vote increased 18,000 and the Progressive vote 
decreased 50,000. In the New Jersey state election the Re- 
publican vote increased 51,000 and the Progressive vote 
decreased 104,000. In recent by-elections of Congressmen 
we find in an Iowa district a Republican gain of 2,000 and a 
Progressive loss of 11,000. In Maine a Republican gain of 
8,000 and a Progressive loss of 6,700. In Massachusetts a 
Republican loss of 1,900, Democratic loss of 6,000, Progres- 
sive loss of 5,500. In West Virginia a Republican loss of 
1,700, Democratic loss of 9,000, Progressive loss of 9,500. 
In Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, where the Republican 
electors in 1912 received but 24,000 votes, the Republican en- 
rollment is now 127,000. In this state the Republican enroll- 
ment exceeds the vote for RepubUcan electors in 1912 by 
67,000, and the Progressive enrollment is 278,000 less than 



316 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

the votes cast for Progressive electors in that year. And it is 
reported in the public press that the Progressive primaries are 
to nominate not members of the Progressive party but a 
selection of Republicans and Democrats for the principal 
offices to be filled. 

Plainly, if the people of the state wish to put an end to 
Democratic control they must do it by voting for the 
Republican candidates. 

The duty of the Republican party of the state will not be 
limited to administration. The great changes of our time in 
industrial and social conditions, the increase of population 
and wealth, the growth of cities, the magnitude of business 
enterprise, the interdependence of individual life, have cast 
new burdens upon government and have made it vastly more 
complicated and difficult. The essential principles have not 
changed but the machinery has become overtaxed. Abuses 
have arisen, and mere faithful administration appears unable 
to remove them, for the organization of government has be- 
come inadequate. These conditions must be dealt with by 
affirmative, constructive treatment, and that treatment it is 
the duty and it is the purpose of the Republican party to give. 

The most patent difficulty has been in the working of our 
representative system. It is not peculiar to New York. The 
legislatures of our states generally have been unable to deal 
adequately with the problems presented to them. Our 
American state legislatures were organized to deal with 
comparatively simple government. Their members were 
representatives of small, local constituencies with whose 
affairs they had intimate personal knowledge. The questions 
which came before them were originally free from complica- 
tion and within the range of their experience. 

All that has changed. The questions with which our legis- 
latures now have to deal involve enormous values, compli- 



THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN OPPOSITION 317 

cated relations, and social problems with which the best 
thought of the world is struggling. To attain wise action 
upon such questions intelligent leadership is necessary. 
That is the invariable rule of human action. Results which 
require the conjoint action of considerable numbers of men 
never yet have been successfully attained, and apparently 
never will be except through the development of some leader- 
ship of thought and feeling. That is true in peace as it is in 
war. It is true in politics, in labor, in sport, in business, upon 
every occasion which requires many men to act together. 
There need not be control but there must be leadership. In 
recent years the real leaders of opinion — the natural leaders, 
the men competent to lead in politics, in business, and in 
thought — have not as a rule been members of state legis- 
latures. There are exceptions, but it is true of the system 
generally that our state legislatures have not contained 
within themselves the elements of leadership necessary to 
deal with the great problems of our time. From this lack 
of capacity for internal leadership there came, in the course of 
our political development, a system of external leadership 
of state legislatures. Party leaders from outside the legisla- 
ture directed legislative operation, and ultimately the one 
chief party leader exercised sole control over his party votes 
in the legislature. Not selected by the people, not responsible 
to them, not subject to the obligations of oflBcial station, free 
from all the limitations which laws have thrown about the 
exercise of official power, proceeding in private, and account- 
able to no one for the motives or the influences operating 
upon him, this extra-constitutional authority came to control 
the constitutional government of the states. 

A popular revolt against the system thus created found its 
expression in many parts of the country in state constitu- 
tions, crowded with limitations upon the power of the legisla- 
ture, and in the expedient of direct legislation by the people 



318 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

through the initiative and compulsory referendum. Those 
expedients have been the outcome of proper and laudable 
determination to escape from the control of legislatures 
dominated in the way I have described. They are not, 
however, the true avenues of escape. They are not progress. 
They are retrogression. They are not reform. They are aban- 
donment of representative government. They are based upon 
a surrender of state legislatures to perdition. They concede 
incapacity of a free, self-governing people to constitute and 
maintain an honest and competent legislative body. The 
true remedy is, not to abandon representative government, 
but to reform our representative system and make it ade- 
quate to the demands of our time. To accomplish this the 
people themselves must give adequate leadership to their 
legislative bodies and conform the power and procedure of 
those bodies to the existence of such leadership. Instead 
of having an unofficial political boss leading our legislature 
in secret, let the leader of the legislature be elected by all 
the people of the state, put by law into such relations with the 
legislative body that his leadership will be exercised in public 
and lawful procedure, and let the governor of the state be 
that leader. To have effective government .somebody should 
be responsible for a governmental policy. Let the governor be 
responsible, subject to the approval or disapproval of the 
legislature. Let the governor or the heads of his executive 
departments have seats in the senate and assembly, with 
the right to explain their policies and the duty to answer 
questions pertinent to legislation. In place of the inconsider- 
ate, reckless, unregulated, and log-rolling method of piling up 
appropriations without regard to resources, let us have a 
definite budget prepared and submitted to the legislature 
upon the responsibility of the executive, with legislative 
power to refuse but not to increase or add appropriations. 
Then log-rolling will cease and economy will become practi- 



THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN OPPOSITION 319 

cable. Then there will be effective power, coupled with 
responsibility — but not autocratic powers, because the 
initiative and leadership will be the duty of an officer elected 
by the people of the state to perform the duty; and because 
final legislative decision will remain with the legislature itself. 
The reflections which arise in considering the relations 
of the executive and the legislature lead inevitably to another 
field of reform in state government. That is, the adoption of 
the short ballot. That is demanded both for the efficiency 
of our electoral system and for the efficiency of government 
after election. The tendency of the modern remedies for 
government evils has been to complicate greatly the business 
of the voter. The initiative and referendum, and constitu- 
tional amendments, and a vast multiplication of offices, 
municipal, state, and national, have produced enormous 
ballots and a multitude of names and questions demanding 
the voter's attention, quite beyond his ordinary capacity. 
This is now made still worse by the introduction of the 
Massachusetts ballot, under which the voter cannot accom- 
plish his purpose by simply marking a party column. Even 
the men most familiar with political affairs find it difficult to 
act intelligently upon all the names and questions presented 
by our modern ballots. There is a general and a just feeling 
that the work of the voter ought to be simphfied. It is a gen- 
eral rule that the fewer and simpler the matters which are 
presented to the voter at the ballot box, the more certainly 
the voter acts for himself upon his own intelligent judgment, 
while the more numerous and complicated are the matters 
presented, the greater is the control of the political manager. 
The most obvious step towards simplifying the ballot in 
this state is to have the heads of executive departments 
appointed by the governor, as they are now by the President 
of the United States imder the national system, instead of 
having each one separately elected as they are now in this 



320 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

state. Still more important would be the effect of such a 
change upon the eflBciency of government. The most impor- 
tant thing in constituting government is to unite respon- 
sibility with power, so that a certain, known person may be 
held definitely responsible for doing what ought to be done, 
to be rewarded if he does it and punished if he does not do 
it, and that the person held responsible shall have the power 
to do the thing. Under our system we have divided execu- 
tive power among many separately elected heads of depart- 
ments, and we have thus obscured responsibility, because, 
in the complicated affairs of our government, it is hard for 
the best informed to know who is to be blamed or who is to 
be praised; who ought to be rewarded or who punished. At 
the same time that the governor is empowered to appoint the 
heads of executive departments and made responsible for 
their conduct, there plainly ought to be a general reorganiza- 
tion of the executive branch of our government, and the 
wasteful duplication of effort and the multiplication of offices 
under a multitude of expensive commissions ought to be 
obviated by making the regular organization of the exec- 
utive departments adequate for the performance of their 
appropriate duties. 

As to the third branch of government — the judiciary — 
the position of the Republican party is clear and fiLrm. It 
stands for the independence, the dignity, and the authority 
of the courts. It believes, as our fathers believed, that here 
is the very citadel of liberty and of justice. It beheves that 
there can be no freedom unless against all private wrong and 
against all official oppression the weakest citizen can appeal 
to impartial judicial judgment for the enforcement of those 
principles of right conduct which have been established in 
the growth of Anglo-Saxon liberty and have been embodied 
in the constitutions of these self-governing states. We will 
support the courts created by the people in the discharge of 



THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN OPPOSITION 321 

their high duty to enforce the principles of justice declared by 
the people against all officers, however powerful, and against 
all temporary majorities, however great, for we recognize 
that there are principles of justice which do not depend upon 
majorities. If the constitution or the law is wrong we will 
change it, but so long as it stands we will enforce it, and 
we are unalterably against every proposal to punish judges 
by popular recall or to overrule their decisions by popular 
vote. 

In the judicial field, nevertheless, we recognize the need 
of affirmative reform. The administration of justice should 
be made more simple, more speedy, more direct, less 
costly. Complication and intricate technicality of judi- 
cial procedure, which have resulted in some part from the 
inheritance of customs arising in early days under differ- 
ent conditions and in greater part by continual legislative 
tinkering with the law of procedure, ought to be swept away, 
the courts ought to be permitted to do justice in a simple 
and natural way, unhindered by statutory technicalities. 
There is no sufficient reason why this cannot be done. There 
is no reason why every honest man should not get his rights 
without being disheartened by delay or ruined by expense. 
The reform of procedure may well include making more 
simple and speedy, less cumbersome and expensive, the pro- 
ceedings upon the trial of impeachments and in the hearings 
required for the removal of judges by concurrent resolution. 
There is no good reason why the testimony in such cases should 
not ordinarily be taken before a suitable committee in open 
session and reported to the body which is to render judgment 
as if it were the testimony in an equity cause, so that only a 
brief interference with legislative business would be involved. 

The Republican party is the party of true reform. It holds 
fast that which is good and seeks to build up. It maintains 
the American theory of government, and seeks to liberalize 



322 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

its application to meet the conditions of the times. It will 
not change its principles upon the shifting demands of popu- 
larity. It conceives true progress to be won by persisting in 
the hard, slow course of popular self-development and self- 
government, and not by abandoning the performance of duty 
and seeking the ends of government through easy experi- 
ments without effort and without sacrifice. Upon the proved 
capacity and sincerity of its past and upon the failure of 
the opposing party, because it has governed well and the 
Democratic party has governed ill, the Republican party 
demands from the people of the state that the powers of 
government be placed again in its hands. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1916 

ADDRESS AT A PUBLIC MEETING HELD UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 
THE REPUBLICAN CLUB, NEW YORK. OCTOBER 5, 1916 

THE people of the United States have some serious busi- 
ness to be done by their Government in the next four 
years and the way in which it is done will be of vital impor- 
tance to the country and to all of us in the country. Foreign 
affairs and domestic affairs alike will be critical and difficult; 
and safety and honor require that these affairs shall be 
handled upon sound principles of action, with intelligence, 
resolution, and skill. The great self-governing people are try- 
ing to determine now whom they will employ for this business. 
Shall we engage Mr. Wilson, Mr. Bryan, Mr. McAdoo, Mr. 
Daniels and the rest of the Democratic Administration and 
a Democratic Congress to manage our affairs for the next 
four years ? 

In considering that question common sense asks: What 
are the principles by which these gentlemen regulate their 
conduct in office; with what firmness of character, good 
sense, and efficiency, have they applied their principles to the 
practical affairs of the country ? 

We are told that Mr. Wilson has kept the country out of 
war. So has every President for seventy years except Lincoln 
and McKinley. Never since Columbus sighted San Salvador 
has there been a time when it has been so easy for America 
to keep out of war by doing nothing as it has been during the 
great conflict now raging. All the great powers of the world 
except ourselves have had their hands full with existing 
enemies. They have been straining every resource to the 
utmost to avoid being conquered by the enemies already in 

S23 



324 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

arms against them. For each one of them supplies of 
material and money and moral support from the United 
States have been earnestly desired and sought because these 
would be a help in the war now raging. No country has been 
willing to assume hostile relations with us because that 
would have the effect of weakening her and strengthening 
her present enemies. More than that, none of the countries at 
war has been willing to incur our passive hostility and throw 
to her active enemies the benefits of our material and moral 
support, free from the limitations imposed by the law of 
neutrality. Our danger is not now, while the great war is 
raging, but later, when peace has been made and the great 
armies are free and governments look about for ways to 
repair their losses and the great spaces and ill-defended 
wealth of the new world loom large on the horizon of their 
desires. Then will come the pressure of competition backed 
by force. Then will come the grasping for opportunity, for 
trade advantage, for territorial foothold, in these new con- 
tinents where the wealth of the world is concentrating while 
the old nations are fighting. Then will come the dangers of 
aggression, small at first, upon plausible pretext, but involv- 
ing our rights, and then we must maintain our rights or 
abandon them. Then must be determined whether the 
Monroe Doctrine has behind it the sincerity and courage of a 
great nation or is to be surrendered as an idle boast. The 
North gave up Mason and Slidell because during our Civil 
War we could not afford to help the South by fighting 
England, and our Government looked on passively while 
the republic of Mexico was overturned and the empire of 
Maximilian established in its place, because we could not 
afford to help the South by a war with France. But when 
the war was ended and the armies of Grant and Sherman 
were free, Sheridan was sent to the border, and before the 
potentiality of that great army, Louis Napoleon withdrew 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1916 325 

from Mexico and began that downward course of diminishing 
prestige and respect which ended on the battlefield of Sedan. 
When the old, warring world shall have had its Appomattox 
and the powers are set free each to pursue its own purposes, 
the time will come when America will need wisdom and 
character and power to maintain her peace and at the same 
time to maintain her rights. 

Peace is not maintained by the surrender of just rights, for 
the presumption of impunity begotten of weak submission 
to aggression breeds further and still further aggression until 
at last a humiliated and outraged people plunges into war, 
which ought to have been wholly unnecessary. Peace is 
maintained by the assertion of just rights, calmly, reason- 
ably, accompanied by a knowledge of power behind the 
assertion and a conviction in the minds of others that behind 
the power are courage and resolution certain to use the power 
if need be in defense of the right. The actual use of physical 
power may carry on a war, may win a war, but the certainty 
that known power will be exercised if need be gives to power 
its full weight in the preservation of rights without war. 
That certainty which makes power potent for the peaceful 
preservation of right is a matter of character. It depends 
upon the world's judgment of the character of a people and its 
government. That judgment upon us and our Government, 
if it is clear in our favor, will be our sure defense in the years 
to come, while if it is unfavorable, we shall surely suffer. 

What will be the attitude in this respect of the nations who 
covet the wealth and opportunity of the new world when the 
great war is over, if we return the Wilson administration to 
power ? Will they have a conviction that courage and 
resolution stand behind the assertion of our rights ? Will 
they believe in the sincerity of our declarations, in the 
certainty that the great powers of this people will be used 
to maintain their rights, and that our Government has the 



326 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

wisdom and skill to use those powers effectively ? There can 
be but one answer to this question. The Wilson administra- 
tion has had the opportunity to exhibit its character to the 
world and it has failed to carry conviction or to command 
respect. In three fields of major importance affecting inter- 
national affairs — the three great subjects with which it has 
had to deal — it has shown itself to be irresolute and incompe- 
tent, and that is the judgment of the world. These three are 
the murder of our citizens on the Lusitania, the preparation 
of military and naval force for national defense, and the 
ghastly failure in Mexico. 

It will be two years this coming winter since Germany 
gave formal notice of her intention to sink merchant vessels 
on the high seas without safeguarding the lives of innocent 
passengers. On the tenth of February, 1915, Mr. Wilson's 
administration replied that if Germany destroyed American 
ships or killed American citizens in that way the Govern- 
ment of the United States would hold the German Govern- 
ment to a strict accountability for such acts, and take any 
steps that might be necessary to safeguard American lives 
and property, and to secure to American citizens the full 
enjoyment of their acknowledged rights on the high seas. 
The words used meant action. They gave notice to Ger- 
many that she would carry out her threat at her peril. They 
met the German threat by an American threat. They com- 
mitted the Government of the United States clearly to the 
use of the nation's power for the protection of American citi- 
zens on the high seas. Yet Germany paid no attention what- 
ever to the threat. She executed her purpose. She crippled 
and sank American vessels. She destroyed American lives 
rightfully travelling on the high seas. 

Why did Germany pay no attention to the bold declara- 
tions of the American Government ? Because she was ready 
to fight the United States ? No. Not for a moment. She 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1916 327 

ignored the words of the Government of the United States 
because upon her estimate of the character of the men who 
controlled the American Government she judged that they 
had not the nerve, the courage, the resolution, to make their 
threat good. The Government of Germany judged rightly, 
as the sequel showed. Germany did what she had threatened 
to do, and the American Government failed to make good its 
words. The brave words of our Government about strict 
accountability were used on the tenth of February, 1915. 
On the twenty-eighth of March a German submarine tor- 
pedoed the passenger steamer Falaha and killed an innocent 
American citizen travelling in the exercise of his undoubted 
rights. On the twenty-eighth of April a German aeroplane 
attacked and crippled the American vessel Cushing. On the 
first of May a German submarine torpedoed and sank the 
American steamer Gulfligkt and killed several Americans 
travelling of right upon that American ship under the Ameri- 
can flag. In the last days of April public notice was given 
in the American newspapers by the German Ambassador that 
the same acts for the prevention of which our Government 
had fruitlessly arrayed the power of the United States with 
threats of action were to be repeated upon a larger scale by 
the destruction of the Lusitania, then about to sail from 
America. Nothing was done about that. Nobody made 
him understand that if this renewed threat was carried out 
his passports would be handed to him. Nobody made the 
German Government understand that it could not safely 
do the thing which it had been told would be at its peril. 
Nobody made the German Government understand that it 
could not with impunity despise the power and flout the 
authority of the United States in its solemnly declared pur- 
pose to protect the lives of its citizens on the high seas. And 
so the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk and one hundred 
and eleven American citizens — men, women, and children — 



328 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

whose lives the Government of the United States had 
solemnly declared it would protect, were slain, and more than 
eleven hundred other innocent non-combatant passengers 
were sent to their death in violation of the law of nations and 
the law of humanity. 

Still nothing was done. Immediately upon the shock of the 
Lusitania horror, while all the world waited, expectant, for 
the Government of this great country to make good its words, 
we were told and the world was told that America was too 
proud to fight, and nothing was done, and nothing has ever 
been done. No one has been held to accountability. A year 
and more later, after more sinkings of passenger ships and 
drowning of American passengers, upon the President's 
declaration to Congress that if such things continued to be 
done he would be obliged to break off diplomatic relations, 
Germany suspended her practice of aggression. She may 
resume it tomorrow. Her statesmen are now discussing the 
resumption of it. She made no amends for the past and she 
made no binding promise for the future. No war was needed 
to protect our citizens. What we needed was a government 
with the strength of character to do one thing or the other. 
If our Government did not mean to protect its citizens on the 
high seas it should have told them that they would not be 
protected and they could have kept out of danger. But our 
Government told them that they would be protected. If 
our Government meant what it said when it declared it would 
protect its citizens, it should have had the capacity to make 
Germany understand that it meant what it said, and the 
Lusitania would never have been sunk. But it had not that 
capacity. It had not the character to make itself believed. 
From the universal judgment of the world upon that trans- 
action there is no appeal and if we return Mr. Wilson's 
administration to office we shall be served in all the difficul- 
ties of the future by agents discredited in advance — by 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1916 329 

agents whose every word is received with a suspicion of 
insincerity and weakness. 

"When the full meaning of the events which involved 
Europe in war became apparent, many Americans saw that 
the same principles of action which made war in Europe 
might well in the future be apphed on this side of the Atlantic, 
and, if applied, would require America to be ready to protect 
her independence and her safety by force of arms. Many 
Americans demanded that preparation be made against these 
new conditions which had arisen in the world. The Demo- 
cratic party would have none of it. The President would 
have none of it. In his address to Congress on the eighth of 
December, 1914, he said: the subject "is not new. There 
is no new need to discuss it. We shall not alter our attitude 
toward it because some amongst us are nervous and excited." 
He said: " let there be no misconception. The country has 
been misinformed. We have not been negligent of national 
defense." At that time, after four years of Democratic con- 
trol of the appropriations of Congress, our navy had sunk to 
the fourth place among the navies of the world. Practically 
nothing had been done towards the construction of the few 
battleships authorized in 1913 and 1914. Our submarine 
and aerial services were practically non-existent. Our army 
was below its authorized strength and was not sufficient for 
the protection even of the Mexican border. In the preceding 
Congress the Democratic House had passed a bill for a sweep- 
ing reduction of the regular army. Fortunately that bill was 
stopped in the Senate. Mr. Wilson illustrated the attitude 
and spoke the sentiments of the Democratic party, which for 
generations had been always opposed to the army and to the 
navy, not only to their enlargement but to their adequate 
maintenance. Something more than a year later Mr. Wilson 
made a tour of the country telling the people of the United 
States that the world was on fire and they must hurry up and 



330 POLITICAL ADDRESSES . 

get ready to fight. He told his audiences that it was impera- 
tive to have the regular army greatly increased ; that it was 
imperative to have a volunteer force provided for and 
trained. He told them the National Guard would not do; 
that it was not big enough; that it was under state control. 
He said at Milwaukee: 

There are incalculable elements of trouble ahead which we cannot con- 
trol or alter. I would be derelict to the duty which you have laid upon me 
if I did not tell you that it was absolutely necessary to carry out our 
principles in this matter now and at once. 

He said at Saint Louis that we must have incalculably the 
greatest navy of the world. He said at Chicago: 

A year ago it did seem as if America might rest secure without any great 
anxiety and take it for granted that she would not be drawn into this 
maelstrom. But a year ago was merely the beginning of the struggle. 
Another year has been added, and now no man can competently say 
whether the United States will be drawn into the struggle or not. 

Yet, a year before that speech, five months had already 
elapsed since the battle of the Marne. The lines of the great 
conflict were set, and it was already known throughout the 
world that the struggle would be long and doubtful and ter- 
rible and well-nigh universal. It might not be strange if a 
college professor, engrossed in the study of books and the 
instruction of youth, were not to take notice of facts so plain, 
but it is indeed strange that the President of the United 
States, with a great State Department at his hand, with 
ambassadors and ministers and consuls in every part of the 
earth, reporting by letter and by telegraph — in a position 
unequalled for information — in a position for which he was 
selected from among millions and invested with vast execu- 
tive power under the special duty to exercise vigilance and 
foresight for his country's protection, should be oblivious to 
the facts. At last, after more than a year, the President had 
learned that there was need to discuss the subject of military 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1916 331 

and naval preparation; that the country had not been mis- 
informed ; that he and his Administration and his party were 
neghgent of national defense; and that the confident and 
satisfied declarations of his address to Congress on the eighth 
of December, 1914, were in error. A few months later. 
Secretary of War Garrison, who had shone as one of the few 
bright stars among the nebulous incompetencies of the Demo- 
cratic Administration, resigned from the Cabinet, because 
the President had shifted his ground again and given his sup- 
port to the proposition which he had publicly denied, that 
no force beyond the regular army and the National Guard 
was necessary for defense. I have detailed all this as the 
basis for a question, and I ask you. What kind of respect for 
the effective use of our power will our rivals among the 
nations have, and what kind of safety for such a use and 
direction will we have, if we return to office an Administra- 
tion which nearly two years after its inauguration was so 
densely and confidently ignorant of the conditions of the 
military and naval service of our country, and whose fore- 
sight of the world conditions required a year and a quarter 
to mature ? 

Why is it that our whole available regular army and a 
large part of the National Guard, many of them ordered away 
from their homes and their business to their great incon- 
venience and distress to meet an unexpected emergency, are 
now engaged in defending the states of Texas and New 
Mexico against Mexican attacks ? How does it happen that 
on the 20th of June last, the Secretary of State of the United 
States, in a letter to the Mexican Secretary of Foreign 
Affairs, found it necessary to make the statements which I 
shall now read: 

The Government of the United States has viewed with deep concern 
and increasing disappointment the progress of the revolution in Mexico. 
Continuous bloodshed and disorders have marked its progress. For three 



332 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

years the Mexican Republic has been torn with civil strife; the lives of 
Americans and other aliens have been sacrificed; vast properties developed 
by American capital and enterprise have been destroyed or rendered non- 
productive; bandits have been permitted to roam at will through the terri- 
tory contiguous to the United States and to seize, without punishment or 
without effective attempt at punishment, the property of Americans, while 
the lives of citizens of the United States who ventured to remain in Mexi- 
can territory or to return there to protect their interests have been taken, 
and in some cases barbarously taken, and the murderers have neither been 
apprehended nor brought to justice. It would be difficult to find in the 
annals of the history of Mexico conditions more deplorable than those 
which have existed there during these recent years of civil war. 

It would be tedious to recount instance after instance, outrage after 
outrage, atrocity after atrocity, to illustrate the true nature and extent of 
the widespread conditions of lawlessness and violence which have pre- 
vailed. During the past nine months in particular, the frontier of the 
United States along the lower Rio Grande has been thrown into a state of 
constant apprehension and turmoil because of frequent and sudden incur- 
sions into American territory and depredations and murders on American 
soil by Mexican bandits, who have taken the lives and destroyed the prop- 
erty of American citizens, sometimes carrying American citizens across 
the international boundary with the booty seized. American garrisons 
have been attacked at night, American soldiers killed and their equipment 
and horses stolen; American ranches have been raided, property stolen 
and destroyed, and American trains wrecked and plundered. ... So far 
has the indifference of the de facto Government to these atrocities gone 
that some of these leaders, as I am advised, have received not only the 
protection of that Government, but encouragement and aid as well. 

These conditions are the result of three years and a half of 
Mr. Wilson's Mexican policy. They are the result of Mr. 
Wilson's interference in the internal affairs of Mexico. The 
men against whom our Secretary of State complained so 
bitterly are the men whom President Wilson put into con- 
trol in Mexico by using the power of the United States to 
turn Huerta out and make their revolutionary movement 
successful. 

When Mr. Taft retired from office in March, 1913, the 
Mexican revolution, through which Madero was overturned 
and Huerta became president, and the counter-revolution. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1916 333 

headed by Carranza and Villa, had been in progress only 
twelve days. The time was too short to determine any 
question of recognition or even to ascertain facts with cer- 
tainty, and the whole subject was properly left by Mr. Taft 
to his successor. The new Administration had a clear field to 
determine and act upon a policy of its own. The ordinary 
practice of nations under such circumstances is to await the 
decision of the people of the country itself in favor of one 
contending faction or the other, and to recognize whichever 
actually acquires control of the territory and shows itself 
able to perform the duties of government. The general 
public declarations of President Wilson were in accordance 
with that rule of action, for he said to Congress on the 
twenty-seventh of August, 1913: 

We camiot in the circumstances be the partisans of either party to the 
contest that now distracts Mexico or constitute ourselves the virtual 
umpire between them. 

And he proclaimed the policy of "watchful waiting." In 
reviewing this policy at Indianapolis, on the ninth of Jan- 
uary, 1915, Mr. Wilson said: 

When some great dailies not very far from where I am temporarily 
residing thundered with rising scorn at watchful waiting, Woodrow sat 
back in his chair and chuckled, knowing that he laughs best who laughs 
last. 

And speaking of the question who should be the governor and 

what the government of Mexico, he said: 

It is none of my business and it is none of your business how long they 
take in determining it. It is none of my business, and it is none of yours, 
how they go about the business. The country is theirs. The government 
is theirs. The liberty, if they can get it, and God speed them in getting 
it, is theirs. And so far as my influence goes while I am President nobody 
shall interfere with them. 

If the President had adhered to the policy which he thus 
publicly proclaimed, the contrast might be less shocking now 
between the appalling conditions exposed in the letter of the 



334 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

Secretary of State which I have quoted, and the untimely 
merriment of the Indianapohs speech. But the President's 
action did not conform to these declarations. His action and 
his words were startHngly inconsistent. He proclaimed 
watchful waiting and he engaged in active interference and 
partisanship. In that very month of August, 1913, when he 
told Congress that we could not be the partisans of either 
party to the contest in Mexico or constitute ourselves the 
virtual umpire between them he had already sent John Lind 
to Mexico with instructions, saying: 

The Government of the United States does not feel at liberty any longer 
to stand inactively by while it becomes daily more and more evident that 
no real progress is being made towards the establishment of a government 
at the City of Mexico which the country wiU obey and respect. 

Then followed a demand to be presented to General Huerta 
that there should be an immediate cessation of fighting; 
that security should be given for an early and free election; 
and that General Huerta should bind himself not to be a 
candidate for the presidency at that election. In other 
words, a demand that Huerta should surrender his power 
and get out. Of course Huerta refused. Curiously enough, 
bad as he may have been, he and his adherents resented the 
attempt of the President of the United States to determine the 
presidential succession in Mexico and exclude him from 
the office. His government; was in possession of the city, the 
archives, the greater part of the territory of the republic. It 
had been recognized by substantially all the great powers 
and most of the smaller powers of the world. He was dis- 
charging the international obligations of the Mexican 
government. The bankers of the great financial cities of 
the world had loaned thirty million dollars to his government 
as the Government of Mexico, and he refused to abdicate. 
On the second of the following December, 1913, the President 
in a public address to Congress declared: 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1916 335 

There can be no certain prospect of peace in America until General 
Huerta has surrendered his usurped authority in Mexico; until it is under- 
stood on all hands, indeed, that such pretended governments will not be 
countenanced or dealt with by the Government of the United States. 

That declaration of course ruined the credit of Huerta's 
government in the money markets of the world. But Huerta 
still maintained himself, and on the ninth of the following 
April, 1914, occurred an incident which was made the occa- 
sion for further action on the part of the American Adminis- 
tration. On that day the crew of a boat from the United 
States steamship Dolphin, landing at a pier in the city of 
Tampico, the use of which had been prohibited without their 
knowledge, were arrested by the subordinate officer in charge 
at the pier and detained an hour and a half, until a superior 
officer was informed and ordered their release. The officer 
in command at Tampico apologized for what had been done; 
General Huerta apologized for what had been done; the 
subordinate officer who had made the arrest was himself 
arrested and held for punishment. But a formal salute to the 
flag was demanded as further reparation; and that not being 
forthcoming, the President ordered the navy to Vera Cruz, 
the great seaport of Mexico through which the capital is 
served, and captured and occupied the city. In that capture 
nineteen American marines were killed and seventy wounded, 
and the Mexican loss was reported to be one hundred and 
twenty-six killed and one hundred and ninety-five wounded. 
At the same time the President applied to Congress for a 
resolution to justify his course. The resolution adopted by 
Congress, which was still under discussion when the news of 
the capture was received, was in these words: 

That the President of the United States is justified in the employment 
of the armed forces of the United States to enforce the demands made 
upon Victoriano Huerta for unequivocal amends to the Government of the 
United States for affronts and indignities conamitted against this Govern- 
ment by General Huerta and his representatives. 



336 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

In asking for this justification in his address to Congress of 
April 20, 1914, the day of the capture, the President said: 

The people of Mexico are entitled to settle their own domestic affairs in 
their own way, and we sincerely desire to respect their right. The present 
situation need have none of the grave implications of interference if we 
deal with it promptly, firmly, and wisely. 

Nevertheless, it was widely believed and widely charged at 
the time that the flag incident was but a pretext for inter- 
ference in the civil war then waging in Mexico, and for using 
the power of the United States to enable Carranza and Villa 
to overthrow Huerta. And many times the comment has 
been made that as soon as Huerta had been bottled up by the 
seizure of his seaport and the interruption of his supplies, 
the subject of saluting the flag was never heard from again. 
Proof has now been furnished that the charges made at the 
time were well founded; that the flag incident was a mere 
pretext; that the reason for action laid before Congress was 
not the real reason. That proof comes from President Wil- 
son's own official family. It is a statement by Franklin K. 
Lane, Secretary of the Interior in President Wilson's Cabinet 
at the time the events occurred and holding the same position 
in President Wilson's Cabinet now. You can find Secretary 
Lane's statement in the Congressional Record for July 21, 
1916, at page 13207. It is as follows: 

Meanwhile the revolution had gained such headway in the north that 
it was diflScult from day to day to say which had or occupied the greatest 
portion of Mexican territory. Huerta was keeping up his resistance 
because he was being supplied with ammunition from abroad. A ship was 
reported ready to land at Vera Cruz with a cargo of arms, and as a warning 
to Huerta and in proof of the seriousness of our purpose to bring Huerta 
to a recognition of our attitude, the order was given to seize the custom 
house and occupy the port of Vera Cruz. 

We did not go to Vera Cruz to force Huerta to salute the flag. We did 
go there to show Mexico that we were in earnest in our demand that 
Huerta must go, and he went before our forces were withdrawn. . . . We 
had gone to Vera Cruz " to serve mankind." Our only quarrel was with 
Huerta, and Huerta got out on July 16, 1914. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1916 337 

And so, proclaiming impartiality and respect for the right 
of Mexico to settle her own affairs. President Wilson inter- 
fered in the civil controversy in Mexico, and finally inter- 
vened by force of arms and destroyed one party and aided the 
other party and overthrew Huerta and set up Carranza and 
Villa in the control of government there. He has had his way 
in Mexico and he has managed it with such a degree of skill 
that both Villa and Carranza are our enemies; that no man 
in Mexico dares call himself our friend, and that the Secre- 
tary of State is constrained to write the letter which I have 
quoted. I wonder if the President laughed when he read that 
letter and contemplated the results of his extraordinary 
*' watchful waiting ", modified by active interference ? 

The question for the American people now is. Are they 
willing to have the serious and critical affairs in which their 
vital interest will be concerned during the next four years 
conducted in the same way that the Mexican business has 
been conducted ? 

There is one particular subject with which the United 
States must deal in order to meet the revulsion in production 
and trade which will accompany the close of the great war. 
That is the tariff. I think there is very general agreement 
upon that. When the demand for supplies to the armies in 
the field has ended, great numbers of men will return to 
productive employment in Europe, and great numbers of 
operatives will be thrown out of employment here and will 
have to find other work. Europe will have little money and 
will be heavily in debt. She will be under strong compulsion 
to pay her debts by making and selling goods. She will be on 
a basis of strict economy and high organization and she can 
make and sell cheaply. The United States will have an 
abundance of money and vast purchasing power. Our mar- 
ket has always been attractive to European producers. It 
will be far more attractive after the war. It is highly prob- 



338 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

able that even England will resort to a protective tariff, so 
that our production will meet protective barriers in all the 
foreign markets. What are we going to do then ? We must 
do something. We must protect ourselves or we shall 
become the dumping-ground of the world and our workmen 
will beg in the streets. Even the Democrats have seen that 
something must be done, for they have provided a tariff 
board to ascertain and report the true facts to which a tariff 
law is to be applied. When they made a tariff at the begin- 
ning of the Wilson administration they were very con- 
temptuous about tariff boards. They would have none of 
them. In Mr. Taft's administration the Republicans pro- 
vided for a tariff board to report to the President and it 
was appointed and doing excellent work. When the Demo- 
cratic House, elected in 1910, came in they starved it out of 
existence by refusing appropriations. In the last session of 
the Sixty-first Congress the Republicans passed through both 
Houses a new bill for a tariff board to report to Congress. 
There were some slight differences of detail in the two 
Houses, which were agreed upon in conference, but the 
Democrats filibustered against the final conference report 
and so killed the bill. So the tariff board was dead — slain 
by the Democratic party. It has now been resurrected by 
that party because they see that something must be done 
about the tariff when the war closes. Even my friend 
Senator Stone of Missouri has seen the light about dye-stuffs. 
Coming from Missouri he has been shown in some way that 
dye-stuffs must be protected. He is still faithful to the old 
flag of tariff for revenue only, but he votes for a protective 
tariff on dye-stuffs because he says he sees no other way to 
protect them. Now we can all understand that if the coun- 
try wants a tariff for revenue only they may put the making 
of it in the hands of the Democratic party. But can any 
sane man contemplate that party making a protective tariff ? 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1916 339 

In the first place they cannot do it honestly. They do not 
believe in it. They were born and bred in a different faith. 
Way back in 1856 the Democratic platform declared for 
" progressive free trade throughout the world ", and four 
years later, in 1860, their platform contained this provision: 

We, the Democracy of the Union, in convention assembled, hereby 
declare our affirmance of the resolutions unanimously adopted and 
declared as a platform of principles by the Democratic convention in 
Cincinnati in the year 1856, believing that Democratic principles are 
unchangeable in their nature when applied to the same subject matters. 

Their principles are indeed unchangeable enough about the 
tariff to make it impossible for them to apply the principle of 
protection fairly and honestly to the making of a tariff. 
That opposition has run through all their history. In 1876 
their platform says: 

We demand that all custom house taxation shall be only for revenue. 

In 1880 they declared for " a tariff for revenue only." In 
1892 their platform says : 

We declare it to be a fundamental principle of the Democratic party 
that the Federal Government has no constitutional power to impose and 
collect tariff duties, except for the purpose of revenue only. 

In 1904 they say: 

We denounce protectionism as a robbery of the many to enrich the few, 
and we favor a tariff limited to the needs of the government, economically, 
effectively, and constitutionally administered. 

In 1912 they say again: 

We declare it to be a fundamental principle of the Democratic party 
that the Federal Government under the Constitution has no right or power 
to impose or collect tariff duties except for the purpose of revenue. 

And in their platform of this present year they declare: 

We reaffirm our belief in the doctrine of a tariff for the purpose of pro- 
viding sufficient revenue for the operation of the government economically 
administered, and unreservedly indorse the Underwood tariff law as truly 
exemphfying that doctrine. 



340 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

There is the position of the Democratic party. They have 
been crying so long that protection is an abuse of power and 
an abomination that they cannot reconcile themselves to a 
protective tariff, and they regard the Underwood tariff as 
a model. That is what we are to have if the Democrats go 
back — the Underwood tariff still, with perhaps here and 
there a slight modification regarding dye-stuffs and some 
other articles which can be shown to gentlemen from Missouri 
and elsewhere. 

Well, if there ever was a clumsy, ill-conceived, misfit law, 
it is the tariff which bears Mr. Underwood's name. We had 
already discovered what its effect was when the war in 
Europe began. During the year ending June 30, 1914, under 
that tariff our imports of foreign products were $80,917,423 
greater and our exports to foreign markets were $101,305,- 
001 less than in the preceding year under the Republican 
tariff. So that American production during that year was 
diminished in its foreign market and superseded in its 
domestic market to the extent of over $182,000,000. At the 
same time the revenue from customs duties for the year 1914, 
with its eighty odd million of increased imports, fell short of 
the customs revenue of the preceding year by $26,132,740.77. 
Many mills and factories were closed or running but a part 
of the time. Great numbers of laborers were thrown out of 
employment and the market for American products was still 
further reduced by the destruction of their purchasing power. 
Enterprise halted, discouraged and apprehensive of the 
future. New enterprises were no longer attempted. Old 
plants were no longer enlarged. The Underwood tariff had 
already failed when the war in Europe began. That war 
furnished and continues to furnish to American production 
the most absolute protection, because it has to so great a 
degree stopped production in Europe. So long as the war 
lasts our producers have practically no competition in our 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1916 341 

home market, for Europe does not make the goods to sell 
here. At the same time, while the war lasts our producers 
have an enormous market in Europe for the things that 
Europe cannot produce in sufficient quantities. When the 
war is over that condition will cease, and we shall deserve 
what happens to us if we do not provide against that time by 
a tariff quite different from the Underwood tariff, and made 
by men who do not consider a tariff for revenue only an 
article of religious faith. 

There is another grave matter which should influence the 
selection of a new government. That is the surrender of 
the President and Congress to the peremptory demand of the 
four railroad brotherhoods for the increase of their wages by 
a law passed under threats. 

To say that the demand of the brotherhoods or the law 
passed in response to that demand involved the question of 
an eight-hour day for labor is a manifest subterfuge. There 
was no demand or suggestion that the labor of the engineers, 
firemen, conductors, and trainmen included in the four 
brotherhoods should be limited to eight hours a day. There 
was nothing in the law limiting their labor to eight hours a 
day. There was no penalty and no prohibition against 
exceeding that number of hours. Everybody knew that a 
strict eight-hour schedule of labor was inapplicable in fact 
to service upon railroad trains where speed and distance so 
largely control length of service, and nobody proposed to 
apply any such schedule to that business. What happened 
was that the brotherhoods demanded, not shorter hours of 
labor but that in computing their pay eight hours should be 
assumed as a day's work and they should have the same pay 
for eight hours that they had been getting for ten, with extra 
pay for the additional time above eight hours. The railroad 
companies offered, in computing the pay, to assume eight 
hours as the basis but refused to allow the full ten hours' pay 



342 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

for eight hours' service, with extra pay for the additional time 
and they offered to arbitrate the question as to what amount 
of pay the brotherhood men ought to receive for their service 
on the eight-hour basis. The question thus became a ques- 
tion of the amount of pay, pure and simple. The universal 
opinion of our country has been that such questions ought to 
be settled by arbitration. Labor has been in favor of that. 
The most intelligent and broadminded employers have been 
for that. Disinterested citizenship has been for that. Arbi- 
tration of industrial disputes has been gradually developing 
into a custom of the country, just as our system of law has 
developed through customs, answering the needs and 
enforced by the public opinion of the community. Where 
the participants in any industry are rendering a public ser- 
vice there is a special reason and a special necessity for such 
peaceable settlement of industrial disputes. In an ordinary 
business a strike is a contest between a laborer's need to earn 
a living and an employer's need to continue a profitable busi- 
ness. They only are directly involved. But where there is a 
public service the whole people are involved. If the service 
stops they suffer, and they have a right to insist that no 
controversy between the employer and the employed shall 
stop a service necessary to the continuance of the life of the 
community. The only way yet discovered to prevent that 
is the settlement of such industrial disputes by arbitration. 
The brotherhoods refused arbitration and insisted upon the 
immediate granting of their demands, whereupon the Presi- 
dent recommended the passage of a law granting their 
demands. A bill was introduced in Congress and while it 
was under discussion the brotherhoods gave notice to the 
Government that unless the bill was passed by Saturday 
night they would stop the entire railroad transportation of 
the country. Under the compulsion of that threat, the bill 
was passed by Saturday night and is on the statute books of 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1916 343 

the United States. No inquiry was made and there was no 
pretense of forming an opinion in Congress as to whether the 
demand was justified and the wages demanded ought to be 
paid. You and I do not know whether the demand was 
justified. The people of the United States do not know 
whether it was justified. Congress did not know whether it 
was justified. The legislation was passed in submission to a 
threat. The brotherhoods, four hundred thousand in num- 
ber, had in their hands the power to injure the community by 
stopping transportation, and the Government of the United 
States submitted to them. It was a hold-up, pure and simple. 
Do not for a moment think that this was merely a question 
between railroad corporations and the men who run their 
trains. It passed far beyond that. The railroad companies 
render an absolutely necessary public service. If it stops, 
business stops, and ruin and starvation begin. The railroad 
brotherhoods include only about one-fifth of the employees 
of the railroad companies. How about the other four-fifths ? 
Are they not equally entitled ? They are not so well paid as 
the brotherhood. The majority of the brotherhood are 
already receiving greater compensation than the average of 
the clergymen, the teachers, the lawyers, the doctors, of the 
country. Why should not the other four-fifths hold up the 
Government upon a demand for higher wages ? They also 
are able to stop transportation. For all that the Govern- 
ment of the United States knows, the four-fifths not included 
in this legislation ought to have their wages increased and the 
one-fifth ought not to have them increased. The difference is 
not one of ascertained rights, but that the one-fifth has exer- 
cised the power of compulsion and the four-fifths have not. 

But if the railroad rates are now justly fixed by the Inter- 
state Commerce Commission, upon these enormous increases 
of pay to their employees the railroads must increase these 
rates, and shippers and passengers must pay more, and the 



344 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

whole public must pay more; for into the cost of practically 
every material thing that we use in life enters the cost of 
transportation. The higher the cost of transportation, the 
higher must be the price we pay for everything transported. 
So, in the end, the public pays and the question is, are the 
people of the United States to be held up by a compact, 
organized minority ? 

There is a broader question here than the payment of 
higher railroad rates. There is the question of the com- 
petency of government and the spirit of a self-governing 
people. If the government of this democracy is to submit to 
compulsion by an organized minority, and the people are to 
approve by their votes, other minorities will profit by the 
example. There are a multitude of ways in which the coer- 
cion of the community through its necessities is practicable, 
if coercion be permitted. If the attitude of our Government 
under the compulsion of the railroad brotherhoods is to be 
the attitude of the American people, we hold our lives at the 
mercy of the public blackmailer. The peace and order and 
prosperous life of the community are impossible under such 
conditions. The organization of civil society which regulates 
the rights and duties of its members towards each other upon 
the basis of ascertained justice, will have failed, as it has 
failed in Mexico. The only way to prevent the example of 
the surrender of government to the compulsion of the railroad 
brotherhoods from being followed by others, is to condemn it 
and to condemn it now. The way is to respond now to that 
evil example with so clear a note of the courage and inde- 
pendent character of American citizenship that never again 
will any band or organization or class of men attempt to 
extort money from the American people by threats of injury, 
rather than by the established justice of their cause. 

The conduct of life by individuals and of public affairs by 
political parties is not wholly nor chiefly controlled by the 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1916 345 

events and impulses of the hour. Overruling all, the spirit 
of the man's life and the party's life determines the attitude 
and the action with which the exigencies of successive years 
are met. The weakness of the Democratic party, and the 
legislators and executives by whom it is represented in the 
government of our country, is that the Democratic party is 
national only in form and profession. It does not think 
nationally. It does not feel nationally. Its acts are not 
inspired by the spirit of American nationality. During all 
its history, it has been a party of confederated local interests, 
mainly solicitous to preserve and advance those interests by 
the exercise of such power as it could acquire in the National 
Government. It has been the party of strict construction 
of the Constitution and opposition to the exercise of power by 
the National Government. It has been the party of state 
rights and jealousy of the power of the National Government. 
At every step of the expanding power of our nation it has 
played the part, not without occasional usefulness, of objec- 
tion and resistance; of criticism and condemnation. It 
denied the right of the nation to make internal improvements. 
It denied the right of the nation to establish a national bank. 
It denied the right of the nation to restrict the expansion of 
slavery. It denied the right of the nation to prevent the 
secession of states. It denied the right of the nation to issue 
greenbacks. It denied the right of the nation to maintain a 
protective tariff. Observe the language of the Democratic 
platform of four years ago : 

We declare it to be a fundamental principle of the Democratic party 
that the Federal Government under the Constitution has no right or power 
to impose or collect tariff duties except for the purpose of revenue. 

The harsh experience of reconstruction imposed by 
national power upon the South, where the control of the 
Democratic party lies, and the inveterate habit of opposition 
to government acquired during the long years of Republican 



346 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

ascendancy, have preserved and emphasized the traditions 
and sentiments of the Democratic party's past. And now, 
as ever, the first thought, the first soHcitude, the inspiring 
motives, are to be found in their state interests, their local 
interests, their neighborhood interests; second to these and 
subordinate to them is their acceptance of the majestic 
conception of the nation. 

When the Democratic Congress rejected Secretary Garri- 
son's plan for a national citizen force to supplement the 
regular army and substituted the absurdly inadequate pro- 
vision for bringing in the National Guard of the states; and 
when the President, abandoning his former position, went 
with the Democratic Congressmen, and the Secretary 
resigned, it was because the Democratic party clung to the 
local privilege of the appointment of the officers of the militia 
by the governors of their states and was unwilling that the 
officers of the great national force upon which we must 
depend if war comes, should be appointed by the National 
Executive. That attitude would have been impossible if 
the Democratic party had been actuated and inspired by the 
spirit of American nationality and had thought first of the 
competency and power of the nation in arms. 

When Mr. Wilson and Mr. Bryan permitted their Mexican 
policy to be controlled by an enthusiasm, however generous, 
for the political fortunes of the Indians of Mexico, and inter- 
fered in the internal affairs of that country for the purpose, 
as Mr. Wilson himself has told us, of giving the eighty per 
cent " a look in " in the government of that country, and 
turned a deaf ear to the forty thousand American citizens 
who were appealing in peril and distress for protection, they 
somehow failed not merely in judgment, not merely through 
being misinformed and deceived as to the true nature of the 
civil strife in Mexico and the men engaged in it, but they 
failed in the spirit of their work. The spirit that has made 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1916 347 

America great and free was not in them. Listen to the 
words of Secretary Evarts, written to Minister Foster in 
Mexico thirty-eight years ago: 

The first duty of a government is to protect life and property. This is a 
paramount obligation. For this governments are instituted, and govern- 
ments neglecting or failing to perform it become worse than useless. . . . 
Protection in fact to American lives and property is the sole point upon 
which the United States are tenacious. 

The imminent, deadly peril of the Americans in Mexico 
was not a mere question of property or of human life. It was 
a question of national duty and honor and right to existence; 
for a nation that is indifferent to the oppression and destruc- 
tion of its citizens anywhere on earth has already begun to 
die. The President was charged by his office and his oath 
to perform that duty for the nation which trusted him. But 
he forgot it. The oppressed and imperilled Americans were to 
him no more than were Mexican peons. He was indifferent 
to them. He recognized no duty towards them. He inter- 
fered in the affairs of Mexico, not for their protection but in 
aid of what he supposed to be a movement for the redistri- 
bution of land and of political power among the people of 
Mexico. The Secretary of State has recorded the result in 
the letter from which I have quoted. The President is proud 
of this. He tells of it himself. How does it happen that a 
sentimental interest in an uplift movement in Mexico was 
stronger than the desire to perform the duty of our nation 
towards its citizens ? It was because the spirit of American 
nationality — the spirit that has made America great and 
honored — was not in the President nor his Secretary of 
State, nor the Democratic Congress which stood behind 
them. That is the fundamental reason why the brave words 
of the message to Germany before the Lusitania was sunk 
failed to bite into the consciousness of the German Govern- 
ment and prevent the outrage. That is the real reason why 



348 POLITICAL ADDRESSES 

the arrogant demand of the railroad brotherhoods upon the 
Government of the United States, under threat of injury, 
was not resented and repelled, and the whole force of this 
nation rallied in defense of its right to govern itself free from 
compulsion. 

The terrible power of a great nation in earnest clears a 
way for itself and maintains rights and accomplishes just 
purposes with no need for physical force. But if the spirit 
is wanting, neither fine words nor skillful argument nor 
sentiment can take its place. 

The most precious possession of the American people is not 
in our cities and palaces, our railroads and factories, our rich 
mines and fertile farms; for we may have all these and lose 
our own soul. The supreme necessity of our life is the spirit 
that bore up our fathers in their poverty and struggles; the 
spirit that inspired them in the great empty spaces of the 
new world with the conception of a self-governing republic, 
bound together by the universal devotion of her sons, instinct 
with the high and unhesitating courage of liberty, honored 
for justice, leading the world towards the better things of 
freedom. The spirit is not gone. It has been sleeping. It 
has been overlaid by wealth and prosperity and ease. What 
America now needs most of all is that she may be revealed 
again in the hearts of her people; that they may realize their 
love of country; that their patriotism may be quickened; 
that they may be ready again to live for her honor and die 
for her duty as their fathers lived and died, and as millions 
of men are living and dying now for their countries on those 
sad battlefields of the old world. 

I have lived a long life, and, please God, will die in the 
company and faith of the Republican party. I have not been 
blind to its faults nor silent about them. But from away 
back among the dim impressions of childhood there come to 
me now and then the voices of women praying that God's 



THE CAMPAIGN OF 1916 349 

infinite wisdom might save this nation for freedom through 
the trials of bleeding Kansas and Nebraska. Among the 
memories of half -comprehending and half -forgotten boyhood 
are the sounds of marching men and the strong, wrathful 
words of those who bore up the hands of great-hearted 
Lincoln, agonizing for his country, against those who thought 
this nation not worth preserving. During all the years since 
then, whenever the stress of trial pressed through the surface 
of prosperous life to the hard substratum of conviction and 
sense of national duty, I have found the men whose aroused 
conscience and patriotism urged them to stand for the finan- 
cial honor, the industrial independence, the moral integrity, 
the fidelity to duty to our country, seeking their object 
chiefly through the organized power of the Republican party. 
I believe in spiritual succession, in the transmission of faith 
from generation to generation, in the ennoblement of rever- 
ence for great examples, in the purification of life by ideals, 
in the love of country that subordinates lesser motives; and 
I believe that if the real prosperity and honor of America are 
to be preserved, if the soul of America is to be saved for her 
mission of the future, it must be through the leadership of 
that great organization which, in its birth and its life, its 
victories and its defeats, its convictions and its impulses, is 
and always has been national to the core. 

And, with cheerful hope, I recognize as the true inheritor 
and interpreter of that ancient spirit which has made America 
what she is, the strong, true and tried American gentleman 
whom we are about to make the twenty -ninth President of 
the United States — Charles Evans Hughes. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Acton, Lord, British historian, 72, note. 

Africa, 21, 29, 36, 39, 54, 75. 

Airships, 17, 329. 

Alaska, 313. 

Alaskan Boundary dispute, the, 200. 

Alaskan islands, the, 289. 

Albany, New York, 208, 272, 275, 308. 

Albany investigations, the, 266. 

Alexander the Great, 34. 

Algeciras, Conference at, 240. 

Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, 315. 

American Bar Association, the, resolu- 
tions of, 63 f . ; address on the Ameri- 
can bar and the war, 57-62; address 
at the banquet of, 169-182. 

American Club, the, at Petrogi-ad, ad- 
dress at, 136-141. 

American Federation of Labor, the, 120. 

American Revolution, the, 134, 177. 

American Sugar Refining Company, the, 
270, 271, 285. 

America's present needs, address on, 11- 
26. 

Anarchists, 156, 163, 175. 

Andrew, John Albion, American states- 
man, 279. 

Anthracite coal mines, proposed govern- 
ment ownership of, 191. 

Anti-rebate act, the, 209, 212. 

Anti-trust Law, the, 280. 

Appomattox, surrender at (1865), 325. 

Arabic, the, 78. 

Arbitration, 71; general treaties of, 
237 f. 

Arbuckle Brothers, 271. 

Army, the, 288, 329 f . 

Arthur, Chester Alan, American presi- 
dent, 279. 

Asia, 21, 24, 29, 36, 39, 54, 75. 

Assassination, 222 S., 226. 

Atlanta penitentiary, the, 272. 



Atlantic Ocean, the, 289, 329. 
Australasia, 21, 29. 
Australia, 232. 
Austria, 16, 21, 71, 95. 
Autocracy, principle of, in conflict with 
democracy, 41, 60, 79, 95, 160. 

Bagdad, 93. 

Balance of power, the, 22, 71, 75. 

Balance of trade, the, 290, 340. 

Balkans, the, 26. 

Bank deposits, guarantee of, 251-254. 

Bankers' Club, address at the, 81-86. 

Banking and Cmrency Act, the, 311. 

Barbarians, overthrow Rome, 34. 

Baser motives of mankind, appealed to 
by Germany, 49, 84 f . 

Battleship fleet, voyage of the, around 
the world, 232. 

Beef Trust, the, 210, 211 f. 

Behring Sea arbitration, the, 289. 

Belgians, 22; address on the enslave- 
ment of the, 3-9; Belgian relief work, 
107, 119. 

Belgium, 20, 21, 25, 26, 36, 37, 40, 49, 
60, 68, 69, 71, 72, 73, 78, 107, 119, 179, 
181, 182. 

Berlin, 93. 

Bertron, Samuel R., member of the 
Special Diplomatic Mission to Russia, 
92. 

Bielostok, 224. 

Bill of Rights, the, 292, 294. 

Bismarck, Prince Otto von, German 
statesman, 53, 76. 

Bissing, Moritz Ferdinand, Baron von, 
German general, 4. 

Black race, the, 190. 

Blaine, James Gillespie, American states- 
man, 194, 279. 

Boers, the, 50. 



SB3 



354 



INDEX 



Bonaparte, Charles Joseph, secretary of 

the navy, 221. 
Bosporus, the, 21, 22. 
Bourbons, the, 38. 
Bourse of Moscow, the, address before, 

127 flF. 
Boxer rebelUon, the, 238. 
Boycott, Chinese, against American 

goods, 238. 
Brandenburg, 74. 
Brazil, 193. 

British colonies, the, 50, 84. 
British Guiana, 193. 
Brooklyn, New York, 305. 
Brooklyn Cooperage Company, the, 270. 
BrusiloflF, Alexis, Russian general, 130, 

145. 
Bryan, William Jennings, American 

secretary of state, 190, 198, 199, 323, 

346; candidate for the presidency, 

243-247. 
Buchanan, Sir George, British diplomat, 

134. 
Buchanan, James, American president, 

188, 195. 
Budget system, the, 318 f. 
Buffalo, New York, address at, 185-201. 
Buffon, Comte de, French natiuralist, 

72, note. 
Bunker Hill, battle of (1775), 17. 
Bureau of Corporations, the, 209, 213. 
Bureau of Mines, the, 286. 
Butler, Nicholas Murray, American 

educator, 265. 

Caesar, 223. 

California, 315. 

Cameronians, the, 26. 

Campaign funds, use of, 243 f . 

Canada, 194, 238. 

Cannon, Joseph Gurney, American con- 
gressman, 221. 

Canton, Ohio, 185. 

Capitol, the, 17, 198. 

Caribbean Sea, the, 22, 29, 30, 36, 40, 53, 
76, 239. 

Carranza, Venustiano, Mexican chief, 
333, 336, 337. 



Cattaraugus county, New York, 305. 

Caucasus, the, 146. 

Cavell, Edith, English nurse, 181. 

Central America, 22, 36, 240. 

Certainty, value of, in business, 128 f. 

Chamber of Commerce of the State of 
New York, address at the, 161-167. 

Charles I, king of England, 223. 

Chesapeake Bay, 17. 

Chicago, 185, 257, 277, 330. 

Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Rail- 
way Company, the, 271. 

Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Rail- 
way Company, the, 271. 

Child labor, 236. 

Children's Bureau, the, 286. 

Chma, 23, 34, 200, 238, 239. 

Chinese students, to be educated in the 
United States, 238. 

Choate, Joseph Hodges, American lawyer 
and diplomat, 220, 265. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, 339. 

Civil War, the, 15, 16, 31, 47, 165, 177, 
189, 195, 196, 283, 324. 

Cleveland, Grover, American president, 
196-199, 222, 258. 

Coal combination, the, 211. 

Coal lands, 234 f ., 287. 

Cohen, Jxilius Henry, 57. 

Coliseum at Chicago, address at the, 65- 
80. 

Colonies, contention for, 75 f . 

Columbus, Christopher, 323. 

Common law, the, 209. 

Congress of Constructive Patriotism, 
address at the, 11-26. 

Conscription, value of, 16. 

Conservation of natural resources, the, 
280, 287. 

Constituent Assembly, proposed, in Rus- 
sia, 90, 129, 140. 

Constitution, the, 65 f., 70, 128, 188, 189, 
190 f ., 195, 243, 244, 245, 263, 290, 291, 
292, 293, 294, 298, 345. 

Corday, Charlotte, French heroine, 225. 

Corporate wealth, increase of, 205. 

Corporations, political problems con- 
nected with, 205-214. 



INDEX 



355 



Cortez, Hernando, 17. 

Cossacks, 175. 

Council of Ministers, the, address to, 
98-101. 

Crane, Charles Richard, member of the 
Special Diplomatic Mission to Russia, 
66. 

Criminals, release of, in Russia, 163 f . 

Crisp, Charles Frederick, American 
congressman, 247. 

Cromwell, Oliver, 223. 

Cuba, 193, 199, 231, 239. 

Gushing, the, 327. 

Cutting, Robert Fulton, American phil- 
anthropist, 220. 

Czolgosz, assassin, 223, 224. 

Daniels, Josephus, secretary of the navy, 
323. 

Dardanelles, the, 30. 

Debased currency, 195 f. 

Decadence, occasioned by luxury, 8, 11, 
34, 180, 348. 

Declaration of Independence, the, 20, 
89, 94, 102, 133 f. 

Demagogue in politics, address on the, 
203-226. 

Democracy, principle of, in conflict with 
autocracy, 41, 60, 85, 95, 160. 

Democratic party, the, 41 ff.; the cam- 
paign of 1904, 185-201; of 1906, 203- 
226; of 1908, 227-258; of 1910, 259- 
275; opposes Republican measures, 
282, 283, 286, 288 f.; the campaign of 
1914, 301-322; of 1916, 323-349. 

Denmark, 237. 

Denver convention, the, 245. 

Department of Agriculture, the, 233-236. 

Department of Commerce and Labor, 
the, 236, 290. 

Department of Justice, the, 212, 233, 284. 

Department of State, the, 290, 330. 

Department of the Interior, the, 233 f ., 
235. 

Deportation of the Belgians, 4. 

Dewey, George, American admiral, 53. 

Dick Act, the, 15. 

Dietrich, German admiral, 53. 



Dingley Tariff Act, the, 194, 238, 250. 
Discussion as related to the war, address 

on, 65-80. 
Disraeli (Earl of Beaconsfield), 223. 
District of Coliunbia, the, 211. 
Dbc, John Alden, governor of New York, 

269, 272-275. 
Dolphin, the, 335. 
Drug Trust, the, 210. 
Duma, Russian, 89 ff., 162, 170. 
Duncan, James, member of the Special 

Diplomatic Mission to Russia, 92, 120. 
Dye-stuffs, 338, 340. 

Eldon, Lord, British jurist, 209. 
Elevator combination, the, 210. 
Elkins anti-rebate law, the, 209, 212. 
Employers' Liability act, the, 214, 285. 
England, 16, 21, 22, 31, 37, 38, 42, 43, 49, 

50, 72, 75, 79, 84, 107, 119, 156, 182, 

209, 223, 237, 324, 338. See Great 

Britain. 
English Channel, the, 21. 
Erie Railroad, the, 257. 
Europe, 20, 24, 29, 31, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 

61, 64, 71, 72, 75, 78, 84, 94, 143, 144, 

177, 223, 240, 329, 337, 340, 341. 
Evarts, William Maxwell, American 

secretary of state, 347. 
Extra-constitutional authority, revolt 

against, 317 f. 

Fairbanks, Charles Warren, American 

vice-president, 221. 
Falaba, the, 78, 327. 
Federal contractors' eight-hour labor 

law, the, 214. 
Federalist, The, 294. 
Federal Reserve Board, the, 313. 
Fertilizer Trust, the, 211. 
Fiat money, 195. 
Filipinos, the, 186 f., 199 f ., 231. 
Finland, 89. 
Flame throwers, 17. 
Flanders, 52. 

Flax industry, the, in Russia, 178. 
Flint, Charles Ranlett, Mr. Root's letter 

to, 95 f . 



356 



INDEX 



Florida. 14, 189. 

Forest policy, 234. 

Foster, John Watson, American diplo- 
mat, 347. 

France, 13, 16, 21, 26, 30, 31, 37, 38, 42, 
43, 52, 68, 69, 72, 73, 75, 77, 84, 107, 
119, 147, 156, 173, 179, 182, 223, 237, 
238, 324. 

Francis, David Rowland, American 
diplomat, 91, 98. 

Fraternization, 48, 131. 

Fraudulent land entries, 235. 

Frederick II (the Great), king of Prussia, 
cynical philosophy of, 72 f., 74, 75, 
81 f., 84. 

Free coinage of silver, 196, 283. 

Fugitive Slave Law, the, 189. 

Fur seals, 289. 

Gambling, 229. 

Garfield, James Abram, American presi- 
dent, 279, 303. 

Garrison, Lindley Miller, secretary of 
war, 331. 

Gas, in warfare, 17. 

General Council of Workmen's and 
Soldiers' Delegates, the, 118. 

General Staff Headquarters, address at, 
130 f. 

Genghis Khan, 73, 159. 

Geological Survey, the, 235, 287. 

Gerard, James Watson, American diplo- 
mat, 30 f . 

Germany, 16, 21, 47 f., 49-55, 60 f., 65, 
84 f., 95, 110, 114 f., 127, 144, 145, 147, 
150 ff., 156 f., 159, 166, 173, 180, 238; 
enslaves the Belgians, 3-9; not im- 
pressed by President Wilson's notes, 
326-329, 347; makes war on America, 
27-38; declaration of war against, 
39-44. 

Gettysburg, battle of (1863), 17. 

Gilder, Richard Watson, magazine edi- 
tor, 221. 

Glennon, Rear-Admiral James Henry, 
member of the Special Diplomatic 
Mission to Russia, 92. 

Goebel, William, 222. 



Gold standard, the, 196. 

Gorman, Arthur Pue, American senator, 
198, 199. 

Grant, Ulysses Simpson, American presi- 
dent and general, 279, 324. 

Grazing lands, public, unlawfully en- 
closed, 235. 

Great Britain, 14, 71, 134, 173, 193, 289. 
See England. 

Great Lakes, the, 238. 

Greenbacks, 195, 345. 

Grey, Sir Edward, British minister, 49. 

Gnlflight, the, 78, 327. 

Hague, The, conferences at, 71; First, 
in 1899, 5; Second, in 1907, 237. 

Hague Convention, the, 4 f . 

Hague Tribunal, the, 200, 238. 

Haiti, 53. 

Hale V. Henkel, 217. 

Hamilton, Alexander, American states- 
man, 206, 294. 

Hapsburgs, the, 96. 

Harlan, John Marshall, American jurist, 
294. 

Harriman, Edward Henry, American 
financier, 272. 

Harrison, Benjamin, American president, 
193, 279. 

Harvester Company, the, 285. 

Havana, 222. 

Hay, John, secretary of state, 221. 

Hayes, Rutherford Birchard, American 
president, 279. 

Hearst, William Randolph, newspaper 
publisher, 204, 215-226. 

Highlands, the, 26. 

Hoar, George Frisbie, American senator, 
279, 303. 

Hohenzollerns, the, 72, 74, 96. 

Holland, 75. 

Honduras, 193. 

Hoover, Herbert Clark, 107, 119. 

House of Representatives, rules of the, 
245 ff. 

Huerta, Victoriano, Mexican revolu- 
tionary president, 332, 334-337. 

Hughes, Charles Evans, address of, 45; 



INDEX 



357 



governor of New York, 206 f ., 208, 213, 

215, 218, 225, 227, 265, 266, 267, 275; 

candidate for the presidency, 349. 
Huguenots, the, 26. 
Humbert-Bazile, French writer, 72, 

note. 
Huppuch, W. A., 274. 

Ice combination, the, 211. 

Dlinois, 257. 

Imperialism, 254 f . 

Income tax, 284, 312. 

Indiana, 199. 

Indianapolis, President Wilson's speech 

at, 333, 334. 
Indians, American, 14, 17; of Mexico, 

346. 
Industrial organization, importance of, 

18. 
Industrial Workers of the World, the, 

156, 163. 174. 
Initiative and referendum, the, 318. 
Insurance investigation, the, 206 f . 
International law, see Law of nations. 
Internationals, the, 156, 157. 
Interstate Commerce Commission, the, 

191, 272, 284, 286, 313, 343. 
Iowa, 315. 
Irish, the, 143. 

Irrigation, 190, 191, 200, 234, 235. 
Ishii, Viscount, Japanese diplomat, 81, 

85, 86. 
Isthmian Canal, the, 194. 
Italia Irredenta, 49, 179. 
Italy, 26, 37, 49, 79, 84, 107, 119, 156, 

173, 182, 237. 

Jackson, Andrew, American president, 
188. 

Japan, 30, 78, 238, 239, 240, 289; ad- 
dress on Japan and the United States, 
81-86. 

Jefferson, Thomas, American president, 
256 f. 

Jerome, William Travers, American 
lawyer, 220. 

Johnson, Andrew, American president, 
198. 



Judicial power, importance of the, 262 f ., 
320 f . ; reform needed in the adminis- 
tration of justice, 321. 

Justice, divine principle of, 293. 

Kansas, 189, 349. 

Kent, James, American jurist, 209. 

Kerensky, Alexander, Russian minister, 
48, 119, 132, 176. 

Kishineff, 224. 

Knox, Philander Chase, American sena- 
tor, 221. 

Kosciusko, Tadeusz, Polish patriot, 142, 

Kultur, 74. 

Land thieves, 233. 

Lane, Franklin Knight, secretary of the 

interior, 336. 
Las Cases, Comte de, French historian, 

94. 
Latin America, 239. 
Law of nations, the, 52, 71, 72, 75, 106, 

151, 328. 
Leadership, necessity of, 317. 
Lehigh VaUey Raih-oad, the, 257. 
Lincoln, Abraham, American president, 

7, 41, 42, 195, 206, 224, 227, 279, 295, 

323, 349. 
Lind, John, personal representative of 

President Wilson, 334. 
Lotteries, 233. 
Louisiana, 13, 189. 
Louis Napoleon, emperor of France, 

324 f. 
Low, Seth, American educator, 265. 
Lower California, 30, 36. 
Lumber combination, the, 210. 
Lusitania, the, 78, 326, 327, 328, 347. 
Luxemburg, 71. 
Luxury, decadence occasioned by, 8, 11, 

34, 153, 348. 
Lvoff, Prince George, Russian minister, 

123, 133. 

McAdoo, William Gibbs, secretary of 

the treasury, 323. 
McCleUan, George Brinton, mayor of 

New York, 221. 



358 



INDEX 



McConnick, Cyrus Hall, member of the 
Special Diplomatic Mission to Russia, 
92. 

McKinley, William, American president, 
185, 188, 194, 198, 219 f., 221, 222 ff., 
226, 232, 279, 280, 283, 323. 

McKinley Tariff, the (1890), 193. 

Madero, Francisco, Mexican revolu- 
tionary president, 332. 

Madison, James, American president, 17. 

Madison Square Garden, address at, 33- 
38. 

Maine, 315. 

Manchus, the, 34. 

Manhattan Casino, New York, address 
at, 259-275. 

Manila, 200. 

Manila Bay, 53. 

Mann, Horace, American educator, 31. 

Mansfield, Lord, British jurist, 209. 

Marat, Jean Paul, French revolutionist, 
223. 

Marbiu"y v. Madison, 295. 

Mark of Brandenburg, the, 74. 

Marne, battle of the (1914). 330. 

Marshall, John, American jurist, 206, 
209, 263, 294, 295. 

Maryland, 315. 

Mason, James Murray, Confederate com- 
missioner, 324. 

Massachusetts, 315, 319. 

MatinSes Royales, the, 72, note. 

Maximilian, emperor of Mexico, 324. 

Maximmn and minimvun tariff rates, 290. 

Meat combination, the, 210. 

Meat Inspection act, the, 213, 236, 280. 

Meneval, Baron de, private secretary to 
Napoleon, 72, note. 

Mercier, Cardinal, 8 f . 

Mexican War, the, 14, 189. 

Mexico, 17, 21, 30, 78, 189, 200, 237, 240, 
324, 325, 326, 344; failure of President 
Wilson's policy in, 331-337, 346 f . 
Michael, Russian grand duke, 90. 
Militia, training of the, 288. 
Militia Act, the, of 1792, 12 f . 
Milukoff, Paul, Russian minister, 91 f . 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 330. 



Milwaukee Refrigerator Transit case, 
the, 213. 

Mission to Russia, American, 87-182. 

Mississippi River, the, 190 f. 

Mississippi Valley, the, 191. 

Missouri, 189, 257, 338, 340. 

Mitchel, John Purroy, mayor of New 
York, 45, 154. 

Monetary Commission, the, 283 f . 

Monroe, James, American president, 21. 

Monroe Doctrine, the, 21 f ., 26, 30, 36, 
40, 53, 71, 75 f ., 77, 324. 

Morse, Charles Wyman, American finan- 
cier, 272. 

Morton, Oliver Perry, American states- 
man, 279. 

Moscow, addresses at, 109-129. 

Moscow Duma, the, address before, 111- 
116. 

Moscow People's Bank, the, 178; ad- 
dress at, 125 f . 

Mott, John R., member of the Special 
Diplomatic Mission to Russia, 92. 

Murphy, Charles F., Tamtaany leader, 
216, 218, 267, 268, 274. 

Murray, William, see Mansfield, Lord. 

Nadault de Buffon, Henri, 73, note. 

Napoleon, 13, 72, note, 94. 

Napoleon III, see Louis Napoleon. 

Napoleonism, 223. 

Narodny Bank, the, 125 f., 178. 

National Arts Club, the, 154. 

National Bank act, the, 256. 

National defense, delay of President 

Wilson's administration in preparing 

for, 326-331, 346. 
National evolution, principle of, 20 f ., 

29 f ., 36, 76. 
National Guard, the, 14 f., 16, 23, 330, 

331, 346. 
National Institute of Art and Letters, 

the, 96, 97. 
National rights, how defended, 35. 
National Security League, the, 11. 
National Sugar Refining Company, the, 

271. 
Naturalization frauds, 233. 



INDEX 



359 



Navy, the, 288, 329, 330. 

Navy Department, the, 232. 

Nazuvaeskaya, address at, 147. 

Nebraska, 189, 349. 

Nelcrasoff, Nicholas, Russian minister, 48. 

" Nervous and excited," 329. 

Netherlands, the, 237. 

Newfoundland Fisheries, the, 238. 

New Jersey, 211, 315. 

Newlands Irrigation Act, the, 191. 

New Mexico, 331. 

New Nationalism, the, 262 ff . 

Newspapers, traitorous, 52, 177. 

New York, city, 218, 305. 

New York, state, 185, 191, 225, 227; 
address on the state campaign of 1910, 
259-275; address at the Republican 
state convention of 1914, 301-322. 

New York Central Railroad, the, 271. 

New York City Hall, address at, 154- 
160. 

New York Journal, quoted, 219-224. 

New York, New Haven, and Hartford 
Railroad, the, 213, 256. 

New York Republican Club, address 
before the, 39-44. 

New Zealand, 232. 

Nicaragua, 193. 

Nicholas II, emperor of Russia, abdica- 
tion of, 89 f . 

North America, 21, 54, 55. 

North Atlantic Coast Fisheries Arbitra- 
tion, the, 238, 289. 

Northeastern boimdary controversy, 14. 

Northern Securities Company, the, 210, 
211, 221. 

Norway, 237. 

Office, desire for, as a cohesive force, 258. 

Oklahoma, 211. 

' Open door,' the, 200. 

Oregon boundary settlement, the, 14. 

Oregon country, the, 152. 

Orient, the, 29, 187, 200. 

Pacific Ocean, the, 22, 81, 85, 166, 232, 

289. 
Pacific railroads, the, 256. 



Pacifist meetings, 17'?. 

Pakrovsky, Russian minister, 166. 

Panama, 22, 195. 

Panama, Isthmus of, 231, 289. 

Panama Canal, the, 22, 30, 36, 40, 53, 76, 

186, 195, 199, 231, 239, 248, 289. 
Pan American Conference, Third, at Rio 

de Janeiro, 239. 
Panic of 1907, the, 230 f . 
Paper manufacturers, combination of, 

210. 
Parcel-post conventions, 232. 
Paris, 223. 
Parker, Alton Brooks, American jurist, 

199, 221, 243, 272. 
Parties, government by, 189, 277 f., 

306 fi'.; address on the duty of the 

Republican party in the war, 39-44. 
Partisanship, political, 42. 
Payne-Aldrich bill, the, 282, 290. 
Peace, not maintained by the surrender 

of just rights, 325. 
Pennsylvania, 191, 315. 
Pennsylvania Railroad, the, 257. 
Peonage, 233. 
Perm, address before Russian soldiers at, 

145 f. 
Pershing, John Joseph, American gen- 
eral, 137. 
Persia, 34, 146. 
Persia, the, 78. 
Petrograd, 94, 117, 156, 158, 162, 170, 

175; addresses at, 98-108, 132-144. 
Philippine Islands, the, 186 f ., 199. 
Philippine Legislative Assembly, the, 

231. 
Pious Fund, the, 200. 
Place in the sun, Germany's, 76. 
Poland, 73, 89; address on, 142 ff. 
Poles, 143, 144. 
Population, increase of, 29. 
Populist Democrats, 198. 
Populistic doctrines, 190. 
Porto Rico, 193. 
Portsmouth, Treaty of, 240. 
Portugal, 75, 237. 
Postal savings system, 253 f ., 288. 
Post Office Department, the, 232. 



360 



INDEX 



Princeton, New Jersey, 222. 

Principles of democracy, address on the, 
132-135. 

Progressive party, the, disappearance of, 
315 f. 

Prussia, 39, 74, 75, 76. 

Public debt, the, 197. 

Public domain, offenses against the, 235. 

Public opinion, power of, 6. 

Public Service Commission laws, 269. 

Pulaski, Casimir, Polish-American gen- 
eral, 142. 

Pure food law, the, 236, 280, 286. 

Quebec, 50. 

Railroad brotherhoods, the, increase of 
wages for, 341-344, 348. 

Railroad-rates act, the, 213, 279. 

Railroad employes, orders of, 286. 

Railroads, government direction of, 107, 
119; government ownership of, 255 ff. 

Railway mails, weighing of, 232. 

Rebates, secret, 200, 207, 212, 229, 284. 

Reciprocity, 193 f. 

Red Cross, the, 119. 

Reed, Thomas Brackett, American 
congressman, 221 f., 246, 247. 

Regeneration, power of, in the Russian 
character, 50. 

Reign of law, the, 35. 

Republican party, duty of the, 39-44: 
the campaign of 1904, 185-201; of 
1906, 203-226; of 1908, 227-258; of 
1910, 259-275; address as chairman 
of the Republican national conven- 
tion at Chicago, June 18, 1912, 277- 
295; speech notifying President Taft 
of his renomination, 297 ff . ; the cam- 
paign of 1914, 301-322; of 1916, 323- 
349. 

Retail Grocers' Association, the, 210. 

Riga, 146. 

Rio de Janeiro, 239. 

Roberts, Lord, British general, 49. 

Rocky Mountains, the, 210. 

Rodzianko, president of the Russian 
Duma, 138, 



Romanoff dynasty, the, overthrow of, 
89 ff. 

Rome, 34, 54, 74, 115. 

Roosevelt, Theodore, American presi- 
dent, 76, 185, 188, 207 f., 222, 225, 
226, 227, 232, 242, 243, 249, 259, 260, 
261, 262, 264, 265 f., 270, 279, 280, 
284, 285, 315. 

Rumania, 74, 79. 

Rural free delivery of mails, 200, 232, 
247 f., 288. 

Russell, Charles Edward, member of the 
Special Diplomatic Mission to Russia, 
92. 

Russia, 21, 22, 26, 30, 31, 37, 42, 43, 71, 
72, 79, 240, 289; the American mis- 
sion to Russia, 87-182. 

Russian-American Chamber of Com- 
merce, address before the, 105-108. 

Safety-appliance laAV, the, 214, 286. 

Saint Lawrence county. New York, 305. 

St. Louis, Missouri, 210, 257, 330. 

St. Louis convention, the (1904), 185. 

Salt combination, the, 210. 

Salute to the flag, demanded, 335 ff. 

San Domingo, 193, 239 f. 

San Francisco, 238. 

San Jose scale, the, 250. 

San Salvador, island, 323. 

Sans Souci, 72, note. 

Saratoga, battles of (1777), 17. 

Saratoga convention, the, 264. 

Saratoga Springs, New York, 57, 63, 227, 
301. 

Scandinavians, 143. 

Schurman, Jacob Gould, imiversity presi- 
dent, 265. 

Scotland, 26. 

Scott, Major-General Hugh Lenox, 
member of the Special Diplomatic 
Mission to Russia, 92. 

" Scrap of paper,"' 40. 

Seattle, address at, 149-153. 

Sedan, battle of (1870). 325. 

Senate, the, 24. 

Senators, direct election of, 244 f . 

Servia, 20, 21, 25, 26, 60, 71, 72, 73, 181. 



INDEX 



361 



Seward, William Henry, American 
statesman, 279. 

Shepard, Edward Morse, American 
lawyer, 220. 

Sheridan, Philip Henry, American gen- 
eral, 324. 

Sherman, James Schoolcraft, American 
congressman and vice-president, 215. 

Sherman, WiUiam Tecumseh, American 
general, 324. 

Sherman Act, the, 284. 

Shiloh, battle of (1862), 17. 

Short ballot, the, 319 f . 

Skene, case of, 267 f . 

Slavery, 73, 293. 

Slidell, John, Confederate commissioner, 
324. 

Social Associated Committees of Mos- 
cow, the, address before, 109 f . 

Socialists, 156, 163, 170, 171, 172 S. 

South Africa, 50. 

South America, 21, 22, 29, 36, 54 f., 219, 
232, 257. 

South Dakota, 315. 

Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 
the, 214. 

South Seas, the, 54. 

Spain, 14, 75, 193, 222, 237. 

Spirit of America, need of arousing, 348. 

Spiritual succession, 349. 

Standard Oil combination, the, 211, 
284 f. 

Standard Wall Paper Company, the, 
273 f. 

State exigencies, supposed superior to 
the rules of morality and to individual 
rights, 19 f., 54, 72. 

Statesmanship, principles of, 72. 

Steel Corporation, the, 285. 

Stimson, Henry Lewis, candidate for 
governor of New York, 261 f ., 265, 269, 
270 ff. 

Stone, William Joel, American senator, 
338. 

Story, Joseph, American jurist, 294. 

Straus, Oscar Solomon, American diplo- 
mat, 154. 

" Strict accountability," 326, 



Submarines, 17, 52, 107, 119, 131, 137, 

329. 
Sumner, Charles, American statesman, 

279. 
Supreme Court, the, 210, 213, 214, 257, 

284, 285. 
Supreme Court, the, of New York State, 

218. 
Sussex, the, 78. 
Sutherland, George, Ammcan senator, 

169. 
Sweden, 237. 
Switzerland, 237. 

Taft, William Howard, Ammcan presi- 
dent, 200, 242, 249, 255, 257, 259, 260, 
261, 265, 266, 270, 275, 332, 333, 338; 
review of his administration, 279-290; 
speech notifying him of his renomina- 
tion, 297 ff. 

Taggart, Thomas, chairman of the Dem- 
ocratic National Committee, 221. 

Tammany Hall, 215, 216 f., 218, 267. 
268, 269. 

Tampico, 335. 

Tariff, protective, 191 ff., 250 f., 256, 
272 ff., 280, 310 f., 337-341. 

Tariff Commission, the, 310, 338. 

Tariff Commission bill, the, 282, 310 f., 
338. 

Terestchenko, Michael, Russian min- 
ister, 48; address of, 101-104. 

Texas, 331. 

Thirty Years' War, the, 6. 

Thomas, Augustus, Mr. Root's letter to, 
96 f. 

Thompson, James, Republican candi- 
date for state comptroller in New 
York, 267. 

Tierra del Fuego, 29. 

Tilden, Samuel Jones, American states- 
man, 206. 

Timber thieves, 233. 

Tobacco Trust, the, 211, 284. 

Tokyo, Japan, 239. 

" Too proud to fight," 328. 

Towne, Charles Arnette, American 
congressman, 220. 



362 



INDEX 



Trade Commission, the, 313. 

Treason, 49, 50, 52, 68, 69, 177. 

Treasury Department, the, 284. 

Treaties: Fur Seal, 289; with Japan, 
289 f.; Portsmouth, 240; Webster- 
Ashburton (1842), 14; of Westphalia 
(1648), 82; general treaties of arbitra- 
tion, 237 f . 

Triple Alliance, the, 49. 

Troy, New York, 267. 

Tseratelli, Russian minister, 48. 

Turkey, 95. 

Tyler, John, American president, 198. 

U-boats, see Submarines. 

Underwood, Oscar W., American con- 
gressman, 340. 

Underwood tariff, the, 340 f . 

Union League Club, address before the 
(March 20, 1917), 27-32; (August 15, 
1917), 45-55. 

United States Bank, the, 189. 

United States of America, the, and the 
war, 3-86; sends a Special Diplomatic 
Mission to Russia, 87-182; political 
campaigns from 1904 to 1916, 183- 
349. 

Universal Brotherhood of the Proletariat, 
proposed, 172. 

Universal military service, the original 
theory of the American government, 
12 f.; occultation of, 13 f.; need of, 
63. 

Universities, German, 75. 

Ural Mountains, the, 166. 

Utica, New York, address at, 203-226. 

Venezuela, 53, 76, 200, 239. 

Vera Cruz, seizure of, 335, 336. 

Villa, Francisco, Mexican chief, 333, 336, 

337. 
Vladivostok, 94, 171. 

' Wall Street Cabinet,' the, 220. 
War Department, the, 231. 
War Industries Committee at Moscow, 
the, address before, 117-122. 



War of 1812, the, 16. 

Washington, 17, 28, 62, 78, 121, 217, 243, 
257, 274, 275, 308. 

Washington, George, American presi- 
dent, 224. 

Watered stock, 208. 

Webster, Daniel, American statesman, 
206. 

Western Transit Company, the, 270 f . 

West Indies, the, 22, 193. 

Westphalia, Peace of (1648), 82. 

West Shore Railroad, the, 256. 

West Virginia, 315. 

Whig party, the, 198. 

White House, the, 17. 

Wholesale Grocers' Association, the, 210. 

William II, emperor of Germany, 53, 73, 
76, 79. 

Williams, Frank Martin, state engineer 
of New York, 267. 

Williams, John Sharp, American con- 
gressman, 221. 

Wilson, Woodrow, American president, 
9, 24 f., 28, 33, 39, 41, 42, 65, 66, 68, 
94, 98, 100, 101, 154; review of his 
first administration, 323-348; his ad- 
dress to the Provisional Government 
of Russia, 92 ff. 

Wilson tarifif law, the, 197, 251, 273. 

Winter Palace, the, 175. 

Woodruff, Timothy Lester, lieutenant- 
governor of New York, 220. 

Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates, 162, 
171. 

Wright, Luke E., Philippine commis- 
sioner, 200. 

Yellow journals, 215, 218-226. 
Yorktown, capture of (1781), 17. 
Young Men's Christian Association, the, 
119. 

Zemstvos, 164, 178. 

Zemstvo Union, the, address before, 

123 f. 
Zimmermann, Alfred, German minister, 

30. 



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